Dunbar       v.2         73098 

A  history  of  travel 
in  America. 


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A  HISTORY  OF 
TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


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A  History  of  Travel 

in 
America 


Being  an  Outline  of  the  Development  in  Modes  of  Travel  from  Archaic 
Vehicles  of  Colonial  Times  to  the  Completion  of  the  First  Trans- 
continental Railroad  :    the  Influence  of  the   Indians  on  the  Free 
Movement  and   Territorial  Unity  of  the   White    Race :    the 
Part  Played  by  Travel  Methods  in  the  Economic  Conquest 
of  the  Continent:  and  those  Related  Human  Experiences, 
Changing  Social   Conditions  and   Governmental  Atti- 
tudes  which  Accompanied  the   Growth  of  a 
National  Travel   System 


BY 

SEYMOUR   DUNBAR 

With  two  maps,  twelve  colored  plates  and  four  hundred  illustrations 


VOLUME   II 


INDIANAPOLIS 
THE   BOBBS-MERRILL   COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


\] 


COPYRIGHT  1915 
THE  BOBBS-MERRILL  COMPANY 


PRINTED  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES  OF   AMERICA 
BY  THE   CORNWALL   PRESS,   INC. 


°\ 


. 


A  HISTORY  OF 
TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


A  HISTORY  OF 
TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

CHAPTER  XIX 

FULTON  AND  THE  CLERMONT  —  PUBLIC  ACCEPTANCE  OF 
THE  PRINCIPLE  THAT  STEAM  COULD  BE  USED  IN 
TRANSPORTATION  —  THE  SIXTEEN  AMERICAN  STEAM- 
BOATS OPERATED  PRIOR  TO  THE  CLERMONT  —  RELA- 
TION OF  EARLY  STEAMBOATS  TO  THE  CLERMONT  AND 
INCIDENTS  CONNECTED  WITH  HER  EVOLUTION 

THE  appearance  of  the  steamboat  Glermont,  on  which 
Schultz  proceeded  from  New  York  to  Albany  in 
1807,  marked  the  final  acceptance,  by  the  people,  of  the 
principle  that  steam  could  be  made  of  practical  use  in 
travel  and  transportation.  By  that  time  the  new  generation 
with  its  progressive  ideas  and  enterprise  was  better  able  to 
estimate  the  probable  value  of  any  innovation  which 
presaged  greater  material  welfare  to  the  country,  and 
perchance  more  eager  to  accept  every  device  giving 
promise  of  practical  utility.  The  collective  mind  of  the 
Americans,  emancipated  at  last  from  a  belief  that  future 
progress  of  every  sort  must  be  along  existent  and  visible 
lines  of  effort,  was  impatiently  calling  for  the  uninter- 
rupted procession  of  wonders  thenceforward  to  appear  in 
response  to  its  demand.  The  generality  of  men  did  not 
know  what  was  to  be  done,  or  how,  but  they  did  realize 
another  age  had  begun  and  that  the  strange  new  problems 

341 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

it  presented  would  in  some  way  be  solved,  and  by  them- 
selves. 

So  when  Robert  Fulton  turned  his  snub-nosed  little 
steamboat  out  into  the  Hudson  River  and  started  her 
toward  Albany,  wheezing  and  coughing  along  at  the  rate 
of  five  miles  an  hour,  the  watching  populace  compre- 
hended. A  throng  had  gathered  at  the  wharf  and  in  its 
immediate  neighborhood,  drawn  by  a  knowledge  of  what 
was  to  be  attempted.  There  were  some  skeptics  in  it, 
and  during  the  preliminary  preparations  and  embarkation 
of  the  passengers  an  occasional  jest  and  disparaging  re- 
mark was  heard.  But  the  bulk  of  the  crowd  was  of  open 
mind.  Its  members  did  not  believe  travel  was  impossible 
in  a  boat  propelled  by  steam  simply  because  such  a  thing, 
so  far  as  they  knew,  had  never  been  seen  or  heard  of 
before.  Doubtless  they  wanted  it  to  be  possible;  hoped  it 
would  be. 

Then  the  machinery  started  and  the  Clermont1  moved 
away  from  the  dock  under  her  own  power.  The  uncer- 
tainty and  hope  of  a  moment  before  were  changed  to  an 
instant  appreciation  of  what  it  meant.  Even  before  she 
had  disappeared  from  their  physical  vision  the  minds 
of  the  spectators  had  gone  on  ahead  of  her,  over  all  the 
rivers  of  the  land,  and  peopled  them  with  like  con- 
trivances. It  was  an  actuality  with  a  visible  meaning; 
a  meaning  so  plain  that  those  who  beheld  the  sight 
might  have  marvelled  had  they  known  of  the  similar 
drama  enacted  years  before  to  the  jeers  of  them  that  saw 
it.  The  boat  moved  slowly — but  what  of  that.  Improve- 
ments could  be  made.  Everything  could  be  improved,  no 
matter  what  its  use  was.  The  thing  had  been  done;  that 

1  She  was — as  at  first  built — 133  feet  long,  18  feet  wide  and  7  feet  in  depth  of  hold, 
with  two  masts  and  sails. 

342 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

was  the  main  point.  A  principle  had  been  established. 
Therefore  the  citizens  lifted  up  their  voices  in  exultant 
hosanna,  tossed  their  hats  aloft,  embraced  one  another 
with  enthusiasm  and  unanimously  admitted,  once  more, 
that  they  were  indeed  a  very  great  people.  They  thought 
they  were  cheering  Robert  Fulton  and  his  steamboat, 
whereas  they  were  applauding  a  progress  in  popular 
judgment  and  the  excellence  of  their  own  discrimination. 
This  was  no  madman  puttering  at  Conjurer's  Point,  but 
a  benefactor  of  his  race.  So  ran  the  verdict. 

The  Clermont  steamed  to  Albany1  on  her  first  trip 
in  thirty-two  hours  against  a  head  wind  that  prevented 
the  use  of  her  sails,  and  came  back  to  New  York  in  thirty 
hours.  She  stopped  at  night,  and  four  and  a  half  days 
were  consumed  in  making  the  entire  experiment.  A  de- 
scription of  the  appearance  of  the  craft  on  the  water  and 
of  the  excitement  she  created  along  the  shores  of  the  river 
and  among  other  shipping  on  the  stream  was  later  written 
by  one  who  had,  as  a  boy,  beheld  the  boat.2  The  account 
says: 

"It  was  in  the  early  autumn  of  the  year  18073  that  a  knot  of  vil- 
lagers was  gathered  on  a  high  bluff  just  opposite  Poughkeepsie,  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  Hudson,  attracted  by  the  appearance  of  a  strange  dark- 
looking  craft  which  was  slowly  making  its  way  up  the  river.  Some 
imagined  it  to  be  a  sea-monster,  whilst  others  did  not  hesitate  to  ex- 
press their  belief  that  it  was  a  sign  of  the  approaching  judgment. 
What  seemed  strange  in  the  vessel  was  the  substitution  of  lofty  and 
straight  smoke-pipes,  rising  from  the  deck,  instead  of  the  gracefully 
tapered  masts  that  commonly  stood  on  the  vessels  navigating  the  stream, 
and,  in  place  of  the  spars  and  rigging,  the  curious  play  of  the  walking- 
beam  and  pistons,  and  the  slow  turning  and  splashing  of  the  huge  and 
naked  paddle-wheels,  met  the  astonished  gaze.  The  dense  clouds  of 
smoke,  as  they  rose  wave  upon  wave,  added  still  more  to  the  wonderment 
of  the  rustics.  This  strange  looking  craft  was  the  Clermont  on  her 
trial  trip  to  Albany.  . 

1  A   distance   of   about   160   miles. 

-  The  author  of  the  narrative  was   H.   Freeland.     It  was  published  by   Reigart,  one  of 
the  biographers  of  the  "Clermont's"  builder,  in  his  "Life  of  Robert  Fulton,"   Phila.,   1856. 
3  The  "Clermont"  left   New  York  at  1   p.  m.  on  August  7,   1S07. 

344 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"On  her  return  trip  the  curiosity  she  excited  was  scarcely  less  in- 
tense— the  whole  country  talked  of  nothing  but  the  sea-monster,  belch- 
ing forth  fire  and  smoke.  The  fishermen  became  terrified,  and  rowed 
homewards,  and  they  saw  nothing  but  destruction  devastating  their 
fishing  grounds,  whilst  the  wreaths  of  black  vapor  and  rushing  noise 
of  the  paddle  wheels,  foaming  with  the  stirred-up  waters,  produced 
great  excitement  amongst  the  boatmen,  until  .  .  .  the  character  of 
that  curious  boat  and  the  nature  of  the  enterprise  which  she  was  pioneer- 
ing had  been  ascertained.  From  that  time  Robert  Fulton,  Esq.,  became 
known  and  respected  as  the  author  and  builder  of  the  first  steam  packet, 
from  which  we  plainly  see  the  rapid  improvement  in  commerce  and 
civilization.  Who  can  doubt  that  Fulton's  first  packet  boat  has  become 
the  model  steamer?  Except  in  finer  finish  and  greater  size  there  is  no 
difference  between  it  and  the  splendid  steamships  now  crossing  the 
Atlantic.  Who  can  doubt  that  Fulton  saw  the  meeting  of  all  nations 
upon  his  boats,  gathering  together  in  unity  and  harmony,  that  the 
'freedom  of  the  seas  would  be  the  happiness  of  the  earth?'1  Who  can 
doubt  that  Fulton  saw  the  world  circumnavigated  by  steam,  and  that 
his  invention  was  carrying  the  messages  of  freedom  to  every  land  that 
no  man  could  tell  all  its  benefits,  or  describe  all  its  \vonders?  What  a 
wonderful  achievement!  What  a  splendid  triumph!  Fulton  was  a 
man  of  unparalleled  foresight  and  perseverance.  His  character  and 
genius  rise  higher  in  our  estimation,  and  still  more  grandly  before  our 
minds,  the  more  we  contemplate  him.  .  .  ." 

Just  as  the  pack-train  drivers  of  a  former  time  fought 
the  introduction  of  wagons  on  the  early  roads  of  Penn- 
sylvania, so  did  the  sailing  vessels  of  the  Hudson  uselessly 
seek  to  retard  the  general  introduction  of  steamboats  by 
working  injury  to  the  Clermont.  The  men  who  for  years 
had  earned  their  bread  on  the  sloops  which  until  then 
enjoyed  a  monopoly  of  river  traffic  recognized  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  steam  craft.2  In  revolt  at  the  new  condi- 
tions it  foretold  they  sought  to  disable  the  boat  and  to 
discredit  her  performances  and  make  her  an  unpopular 
vehicle  of  travel.  Several  times  she  was  run  down  and 
damaged  in  that  manner,  but  no  grave  injury  resulted. 
Occasionally  she  had  a  paddle  wheel  knocked  off  bodily. 

1  A   favorite  expression   used  by  Fulton. 

2  Thurlow  Weed  was  one  who  began  his  career  as  cabin-boy  on  a  Hudson  River  sailing 
packet,  and  was  so  engaged  when  the  "Clermont"  appeared.     But  his  mind  was  not  of  the 
caliber   to   resent   such   an   innovation. 

345 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

In  commenting  on  the  attacks  one  of  the  inventor's 
biographers1  has  said :  "It  is  not  important  to  notice  these 
facts;  they  illustrate  the  character  of  Mr.  Fulton.  They 
show  what  embarrassments  are  to  be  expected  by  those 


103. — The  W  alk-in-the-W  ater ,  first  steamboat  on  the  Great  Lakes.  Built 
near  Buffalo  in  1818,  under  license  from  the  Fulton-Livingston  Company. 
From  a  drawing  made  for  use  on  the  bills-of -lading  printed  for  the  boat, 
and  reproduced  in  Hurlbut's  monograph. 

who  introduce  improvements  in  the  arts  which  interfere 
with  established  interests  or  prejudices;  and  they  evince 
the  perseverance  and  resolution  which  were  necessary  to 
surmount  the  physical  and  moral  difficulties  which  Mr. 
Fulton  encountered.  Sneered  at  by  his  own  countrymen, 
called  knave,  fool  and  enthusiast,  yet  he  bravely  lived 
all  opposition  down." 


1  Reigart. 


346 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

The  Clermont  prospered  in  spite  of  all  jealousies.1 
During  the  remainder  of  the  year  1807  she  continued  to 
be  run  as  a  passenger  boat,  always  crowded  with  enthu- 
siastic voyagers  eager  to  avail  themselves  of  the  wonderful 
new  system  of  conveyance,  who  paid  scant  heed  to  her 
slow  speed  and  occasional  breakdowns.  In  the  winter 
of  1807-1808  the  boat  was  rebuilt  and  in  the  succeeding 
spring  resumed  her  popular  career.  Tales  of  her  existence 
and  exploits  on  the  Hudson  were  published  and  com- 
mented upon  in  all  the  newspapers  of  the  country,  and 
the  inhabitants  of  every  section  where  navigable  rivers 
were  the  chief  arteries  of  travel  displayed  an  anxiety  to 
acquire  a  similar  means  of  locomotion.  Within  a  short 
time  the  recognized  necessity  of  steam  as  an  indispensable 
motive  power  in  transportation  assumed  all  the  quality 
of  an  immemorial  axiom.  A  clamor  for  steamboats  arose, 
and  the  people  could  not  understand  how  they  had  ever 
got  along  without  them. 

Nevertheless  there  was  a  delay  of  more  than  sixteen 
years  before  the  use  of  steam  propulsion  became  widely 
prevalent,  and  the  underlying  reason  for  that  halt  on  the 
way  toward  further  progress  is  to  be  found,  most  singu- 
larly, in  the  circumstances  leading  to  the  appearance  of  the 
Clermont. 

Fulton's  first  boat,  however  suddenly  and  unex- 
pectedly it  seemed  to  the  public  to  drop  from  the  realms 
of  unreality  into  the  knowledge  and  use  of  men,  was  not 
the  creation  of  a  day  or  a  year.  It  was,  on  the  contrary — 
and  perhaps  to  a  greater  degree  than  any  other  similarly 
epoch-opening  device — the  product  of  many  minds  and 
of  a  long  series  of  strange  and  devious  circumstances. 

1  After  a  number  of  attempts  had  been  made  to  disable  her  the  paddle-wheels  were  en- 
closed and  protected  by  heavy  timbers.  The  hostility  shown  toward  the  vessel  by  river 
boatmen  was  proof  of  the  popular  endorsement  given  to  the  craft,  rather  than  otherwise. 

347 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL   IN  AMERICA 


104. — The  first  form  of  the  bicycle,  introduced  from  Europe,  was  contemporary 
with  Fulton's  steamboats  in  the  East.  The  contrivance  merely  sustained 
the  weight  of  the  body,  and  progress  was  made  by  pushing  the  ground 
with  the  feet.  It  was  variously  called  the  Velocipede,  Accelerator,  Draisena, 
Hobby  Horse  and  Dandy  Carriage.  Baltimore  was  the  American  center 
for  its  manufacture,  and  a  specimen,  made  of  wrought  iron  and  hardwood, 
cost  $30.  By  1819  the  use  of  the  velocipede  had  spread  as  far  west  as 
Louisville. 

At  least  sixteen  steamboats  had  been  built  in  America 
before  the  launching  of  the  Glermont,  fifteen  of  which 
had  previously  been  operated  under  their  own  power  by 
the  eight  different  men  who  had  designed  them.  Nor 
were  Americans  first  in  the  field.  A  list  in  chronological 
order  of  some  of  the  early  experiments  follows: 

The  first  known  contemporary  evidence  showing  the 
application  of  steam  power  to  water  craft  as  a  means  of 
propulsion  is  to  be  found  in  connection  with  Denis  Papin, 
a  French  scientist  and  engineer,  who  invented  and  built  a 
steamboat  while  residing  in  the  principality  of  Hesse, 
in  Germany,  in  the  year  1707.  His  demonstration  of 
steam  navigation  having  brought  abuse  upon  him,  he 

348 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

embarked  on  his  vessel  in  an  effort  to  proceed  in  it  to 
London.  With  this  object  he  started  down  the  River 
Fulda,  but  at  the  town  of  Munden  the  boatmen  of  the 
river  attacked  him  and  destroyed  his  boat.  He  escaped 
with  his  life,  and  never,  so  far  as  is  known,  repealed  his 
undertaking. 

In  1736  an  Englishman  named  Jonathan  Hulls  took 
out  a  patent  for  a  stern-wheeled  steamboat,  and  during 
the  following  year  published  in  London  a  book  describing 
the  invention,  the  frontispiece  of  which  is  a  picture  of 
his  steamboat  engaged  in  towing  a  sailing  vessel.  An 
English  investigator1  of  the  subject  affirms  that  Hulls' 
boat  was  built  and  used,  but  Preble2  comes  to  a  contrary 
conclusion. 

M.  de  Jouffroy,  of  France,  began  experimenting  in 
1778,  and  in  1781  built  a  steamboat  140  feet  long.  In 
1783  it  ran  under  its  own  power  with  paddle-wheels,  and 
a  committee  of  the  French  Academy  of  Science  made  a 
favorable  report  regarding  it.  Jouffroy  demanded  a 
patent,  but  left  France  on  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution, 
and  on  his  return  found  a  patent  for  a  similar  boat  had 
been  awarded  to  another  man. 

1786. — John  Fitch  operated  on  the  Delaware  River,  at 
Philadelphia,  the  first  steamboat  to  move  in  American 
waters.  It  was  propelled  by  an  endless  chain  of  paddles. 

1787. — Fitch  ran  his  second  boat  on  the  Delaware  in 
August,  with  the  system  of  upright  paddles  at  the  sides. 

1787. — Rumsey,  in  December,  moved  a  boat  by 
drawing  a  stream  of  water  in  at  the  bow  and  ejecting 
it  at  the  stern. 

1788. — Fitch  finished  his  third  boat  and  in  it  made  a 

1  Russell,    in    the    "Encycloped'a   Britannica." 

2  Rear-Admiral   George   Henry    Preble,    U.    S.   N.,   published   in   1883    "A   Chronological 
History   of  the   Origin   and   Development  of   Steam   Navigation." 

349 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

twenty-mile  voyage  from  Philadelphia  to  Burlington. 
This  same  boat  afterward  ran  regularly  as  a  passenger 
packet  on  the  Delaware  in  1790,  covering  a  thousand 
miles  or  more.  Its  best  speed  was  eight  miles  an  hour. 
In  1788  three  Scotchmen  named  Patrick  Millar,  James 


105. — A  Hudson  River  passenger  barge  of  1825.  Owing  to  the  numerous  explo- 
sions due  to  carelessness  on  early  steamboats  many  people  hesitated  to 
use  them,  and  some  companies  resorted  to  the  expedient  of  towing  travellers 
on  separate  vessels,  so  they  would  be  in  less  danger  of  death  or  injury  if 
the  boilers  blew  up.  This  and  the  illustrations  to  No.  114,  inclusive,  deal 
with  steamboats  and  steamboat  travel  in  the  East. 


Taylor  and  William  Symington  jointly  built  and  operated 
a  steamboat  on  the  Lake  of  Dalswinton.  It  was  moved 
by  a  paddle-wheel  placed  in  the  center  of  the  boat,  and 
ran  at  the  rate  of  five  miles  an  hour. 

In  1789  the  same  men  equipped  a  boat  sixty  feet  long 
with  an  engine  whose  cylinders  were  of  18  inches  diame- 
ter, and  ran  it  on  the  Forth  and  Clyde  Canal  at  the  rate 

350 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

of  about  seven  miles  an  hour.  The  contemporary  Edin- 
burgh newspapers  contained  information  respecting  it. 

1790. — William  Longstreet  of  New  Jersey,  then  liv- 
ing in  Georgia,  built  a  boat  that  ran  against  the  current 
of  the  Savannah  River  at  the  rate  of  five  miles  an 
hour.1 

1792. — Elijah  Ormsbee  of  Connecticut,  then  residing 
in  Rhode  Island,  invented  and  constructed  a  steamboat 
propelled  by  side  paddles  moving  back  and  forth  like  a 
duck's  feet.  In  it  he  went  from  a  point  near  Cranston 
to  Providence;  thence  to  Pawtucket  and  back  to 
Providence  again.  Ormsbee's  boat  made  from  three  to 
four  miles  an  hour,  and  he  used  it  for  several  weeks. 
No  one  being  interested  in  it,  the  machinery  was  taken 
out  of  the  boat  and  given  to  David  Wilkinson,  of  Paw- 
tucket,  another  mechanic  who  had  made  Ormsbee's 
castings  for  him.2  Ormsbee  constructed  most  of  his  own 
machinery  and  understood  the  principle  of  paddle- 
wheels.  His  use  of  side  paddles  was  due  to  the  cheapness 
of  the  mechanism  for  that  means  of  propulsion  and  his 
lack  of  money. 

1793  or  1794. — Samuel  Morey  of  New  Hampshire, 
then  living  in  Connecticut,  who  began  his  experi- 
ments in  the  year  1790,  built  a  paddle-wheel  steamboat 
on  the  Connecticut  River  in  1794  and  ran  the  vessel  from 
Hartford  to  New  York  City  at  the  rate  of  five  miles  an 
hour.3  Morey  placed  his  paddle-wheel  at  the  stern  of 
the  boat,  in  the  manner  afterward  adopted  for  many  steam- 
boats on  western  waters  and  some  rivers  of  the  East. 
Mann,  in  his  account  of  Morey's  work,  indicates  a  lack  of 

1  Treble's   "Chronological   History  of   Steam   Navigation,"  p.   23. 

2  Dow's    "History   of    Steam    Navigation    between    Providence    and    New   York." — Files 
of  the  Transactions  of  the  Society  for  the  Encouragement  of  Domestic  Industry.     Preble: 
p.   27. 

3  Preble:    Mann's  "Account  of  Morey's  Steamboat"  (1864). — The  Patent  Office  records 
show   that   Morey   took   out   several   patents    for   steamboats. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL   IN   AMERICA 

knowledge  of  earlier  inventors,  for  he  says  Morey's  vessel 
was  "so  far  as  is  known,  the  first  steamboat  ever  seen  on 
the  waters  of  America." 

The  English  Earl  of  Stanhope,  in  1793,  after  three 
years  of  experiments,  built  a  steamboat  with  side  paddles 
like  duck's  feet  on  the  same  principle  used  by  Orms- 
bee  of  Connecticut  in  1792.  Stanhope  obtained  for  his 
vessel  a  speed  of  three  miles  an  hour. 

In  the  same  year  of  1793  John  Smith,  of  England,  ran 
a  steamboat  on  the  Bridgewater  Canal  from  Runcorn 
to  Manchester,  at  the  rate  of  two  miles  an  hour.  The 
craft  had  side  paddle-wheels. 

Still  another  steamboat  was  operated  on  the  Sankey 
Canal  in  Lancashire,  England,  in  1797.  It  was  equipped 
with  side  oars  like  those  used  by  Fitch  in  his  second  boat. 
The  Monthly  Magazine,  an  English  periodical  of  the 
time,  spoke  of  the  boat  in  its  issue  for  July  of  1797,  and 
said:  "This  ingenious  discovery  .  .  .  may  be  ranked 
amongst  the  most  useful  of  modern  inventions,  and  in 
particular  promises  the  highest  benefits  to  inland  navi- 
gation." 

1796  or  1797. — Fitch  built  and  ran  his  screw  propeller 
boat  on  Collect  Pond  in  New  York  Citv. 

j 

1797. — Morey  built  a  side-wheel  steamboat  at  Borden- 
town,  near  Philadelphia,  on  the  Delaware  River.  He 
afterward  ran  the  boat  to  Philadelphia  and  showed  it 
there.  In  a  letter  written  in  the  year  18181  Morey  de- 
scribed this  craft  as  follows:  "In  June,  1797,  I  went 
to  Bordentown,  on  the  Delaware,  and  there  constructed  a 
steamboat,  and  devised  the  plan  of  propelling  by  means 
of  wheels,  one  on  each  side.  The  shafts  ran  across  the 

1  To  William  A.  Duer,  who  had  a  celebrated  controversy  with  Cadwallader  Golden  over 
the  question  of  early  steamboats. 

352 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

boat  with  a  crank  in  the  middle,  worked  from  the  beam 
of  the  engine  with  a  shackle  bar  ...  I  took  out  patents 
for  my  improvements.  .  .  .m 

1798. — Robert  R.  Livingston,  commonly  known  in 
history  as  Chancellor  Livingston,  built  a  boat  on  the 
Hudson  River,2  and  by  the  legislature  of  New  York 
was  granted  exclusive  privileges  "of  navigating  all  boats 
that  might  be  propelled  by  steam  on  all  the  waters  within 
the  territory,  or  jurisdiction,  of  the  State  for  the  term  of 
twenty  years,  provided  he  should,  within  a  twelvemonth, 
build  such  a  boat,  the  mean  of  whose  progress  should  not 
be  less  than  four  miles  an  hour."  This  grant  was  offered 
to  Livingston  in  March  of  1798,  and  was  a  transference 
of  the  right  previously  conferred  on  Fitch  and  now  taken 
away  because  he  had  not  availed  himself  of  the  monopoly 
given  to  him  eleven  years  before.  In  October  of  1798 
Livingston's  boat  made  a  trip  during  which  its  speed  was 
about  three  miles  an  hour.  The  Spanish  Minister  to  the 
United  States,  was  on  board  at  the  time.3  Since  four  miles 
an  hour  was'niQt  attained  by  the  vessel  before  March  of 
1799,  the  State's  proffer  of  exclusive  privileges  did  not 
then  become  effective.  Livingston's  boat  was  variously 
moved  on  different  trips  by  upright  side  paddles,  endless 
chains  of  paddles,  and  by  two  stern  wheels  that  were  not 
upright,  but  apparently  revolved  horizontally  on  the  same 
plane  and  in  opposite  directions.  Probably  each  blade 
was  hinged  in  order  that  it  might  fold  up  when  returning 
toward  the  bow  of  the  boat. 

Hunter  and  Dickinson,  of  England,  ran  a  steamboat 
on  the  Thames  River  in  1801.  In  discussing  their  boat 

iPreble:   p.    30. 

2  So  many  steamboats  had  by  this  time  been  operated  in  America  that  Jedediah  Morse, 
the  early  geographer,  took  note  of  them   and  said   in   the  edition  of   his   "Gazetteer,"  pub- 
lished  in   ]797,  that  "it   is  probable  steamboats  will  be  found  of  infinite  service  in  all  our 
extensive   river   navigation." 

3  Spain  seems  to   have   kept  a  constant  eye   on   early  steamboats. 

353 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

the  Monthly  Magazine  spoke  of  its  performance  as  "very 
creditable  to  them,  and  as  exceeding  everything  before 
accomplished."  It  also  said  "the  vessel  was  moved  at 
the  rate  of  three  miles  an  hour  through  the  water." 

In   1802  William  Symington,   acting  alone,  built  a 
steamboat  on  the  Forth  and  Clyde  Canal  and  ran  it  at 


106. — New  York  steam  ferry  boat,  ferry  dock,  Hudson  River  steamboat  and 
passenger  barge  of  1825.  A  water-color  sketch  by  the  Dutch  civil  engineer 
Tromp,  drawn  to  accompany  an  account  of  American  transportation  facili- 
ties written  by  him  in  1825  as  a  result  of  his  investigations  during  that 
year. 

354 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

the  rate  of  between  three  and  four  miles  an  hour  while 
towing  two  other  loaded  boats,  each  of  seventy  tons  bur- 
den. Without  a  tow  the  craft  ran  at  six  miles  an  hour. 
Symington's  boat  was  the  Charlotte  Dundas,  constructed 
at  a  cost  of  about  $15,000.  It  was  his  intention  to  place 
her  paddle-wheels  at  the  sides,  but  for  fear  the  wash  of 
the  water  would  injure  the  banks  of  the  canal,  the  re- 
volving paddles  were  put  at  the  stern. 

1802. — John  Stevens,  of  Hoboken,  New  Jersey,  who 
had  been  actively  interested  in  the  subject  of  steam  navi- 
gation since  1791, 1  built  a  steamboat  moved  by  a  four- 
bladed  screw  propeller.  He  also  used  a  high  pressure 
multitubular  boiler,  and  all  his  machinery  was  of  his 
own  design  and  manufacture.  Stevens  ran  his  boat  in 
the  waters  around  New  York  during  the  summer.  Its 
speed  was  about  four  miles  an  hour.2 

1803. — Stevens  built  a  new  engine  of  a  different  type, 
but  also  with  a  screw  propeller,  and  ran  his  boat  in  the 
neighborhood  of  New  York  City  as  during  the  previous 
year.3 

1804. — Oliver  Evans,  an  early  American  inventor  and 
engineer,  built  and  operated  a  steamboat  at  Philadelphia. 
It  was  designed  for  use  as  a  dredge,  and  was  propelled 
by  a  paddle-wheel  at  the  stern.  In  order  to  show  that 
land  vehicles  as  well  as  water  craft  could  be  moved  by 
steam  power  Evans  put  wheels  on  his  boat  and  ran  it 
by  steam  through  the  city  from  Center  Square  to  the 
Schuylkill  River  at  Market  Street.  There,  after  its  land 
wheels  had  been  taken  off  and  the  paddle-wheel  adjusted, 

1  Several  of  the  early  American  inventors  turned  their  attention  to  steam  propulsion 
icause  of  Fitches  boat  and  began  their  work  in  1790  or  1791.  Treble  says  of  Stevens 
:>.  41,  note):  "In  1787  he  became  interested  in  steamboats,  from  seeing  that  of  John 


becat 
(P. 

Fitch 

2  "Medical  and  Philosophical  Journal,"  Jan..  181S. — Latrobe's  "Lost  Chapter." — Francis 
B.    Stevens'    "The    First    Steam    Screw    Propeller    Boats    to    Navigate    the    Waters    of    any 
Country." — Preble. 

3  Ibid. 


355 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

it  entered  the  water,  steamed  down  the  Schuylkill  to  the 
Delaware  and  up  the  last  named  river  to  Philadelphia 
again,  passing  numerous  other  vessels  on  the  way.  It  then 
entered  on  its  work  as  a  steamboat  dredge. 


107. — The  Champlalne,  finest  steamboat  up  to  1835.  Employed  on  the  Hudson. 
After  monopoly  in  steam  transportation  was  overthrown  by  the  Supreme 
Court  various  companies  in  the  East  built  vessels  of  steadily  increasing 
size  and  magnificence,  the  best  of  which  appeared  in  the  waters  around 
New  York,  Boston,  Providence  and  Philadelphia. 

1804. — Stevens,  of  Hoboken,  built  and  operated  a 
small  twin-screw  steamboat.  It  was  in  use  for  some  time 
between  Hoboken  and  Nrw-^rk  and  had  an  ordinary 
speed  of  four  miles  an  hour.  For  short  distances  it  could 
attain  about  seven  or  eight  miles  an  hour.1  In  1844  the 
engine  and  propellers  of  this  boat,  as  originally  built, 
were  placed  in  a  similar  hull  and  the  craft  was  run  on 
the  Hudson  River  at  eight  miles  an  hour.  The  engine 

1  James  Remvick,  in  the  "Historical  Magazine,"  Vol.  II,  No.  8.  Renwick  was  a  pro- 
fessor at  Columbia  College.  New  York,  and  saw  the  boat. — Preble. — Stevens'  "First 
Steam  Screw  Propellers." — Stuart's  "Anecdotes  of  the  Steam  Engine."  London,  1829. 

356 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL   IN  AMERICA 

and  propellers,  together  with  the  boilers,  are  still  pre- 
served in  running  order  at  the  Stevens  Institute  in 
Hoboken,  New  Jersey. 

1805. — Stevens  built  and  ran  a  twin-screw  steam  pro- 
peller boat  on  the  Hudson  River.  It  was  about  fifty  feet 
long,  with  a  draft  of  four  feet,  and  remained  in  use 
until  some  time  in  the  year  1806.1 

1806. — Stevens  turned  his  attention  to  the  side-wheel 
type  of  vessel  and  built  the  Phoenix,  which  was  pro- 
pelled in  that  manner.  This  boat  was  partly  constructed 
when  Fulton  returned  to  America  from  England  in  1806, 
prior  to  the  commencement  of  the  Clermont.  Fulton's 
boat  was  first  to  take  the  water,  being  finished  a  few  weeks 
ahead  of  the  Phoenix,  and  Stevens'  craft,  debarred  from 
New  York  state  under  a  legislative  monopoly  granted 
to  Livingston  and  Fulton,  was  run  to  Philadelphia  and 
operated  in  that  neighborhood. 

Fulton  had  lived  in  Philadelphia  from  1782  to  1786, 
during  the  last  year  or  more  of  which  time  Fitch  had 
been  busy  with  his  boat.  There  is  nothing  to  indicate  a 
knowledge  of  Fitch's  work  by  Fulton  until  a  later  date. 
Fulton  went  to  London  in  1786,  where  he  resided  in  the 
household  of  the  American  painter,  Benjamin  West,  for 
several  years,  and  devoted  himself  to  a  study  of  engineer- 
ing. John  Rumsey  proceeded  to  England  in  May  of  1788, 
and  died  in  London  on  Decem'b»e:r;24,,  1792."  Fulton  knew 
of  Rumsey's  presence  in  England, -went  to  see  him  there,3 
and  discussed  with  him  the  subject  of  steamboats.  It  is 
not  probable,  in  view  of  the  controversy  between  Fitch 
and  Rumsey,  that  Fulton  could  have  talked  about  steam- 

1  Stevens'   "First   Steam   Screw   Propellers." — Preble. 

2  Bache's   "General   Advertiser,"   Philadelphia,   March  5,  1793. 

3  "A   gentleman   not   many   years  ago  had   in   his   possession   letters  written  by   Rumsey 
in   London,   which   mentioned    his   receiving   frequent   visits  there   from   a   young    American 
studying    engineering,    who    showed    a    sympathetic    and    intelligent    interest    in    Rumsey's 
labors.     This  young  man  was  Robert   Fulton.      .      .      ." — Preble:  p.   12. 

357 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


108. — The  Swallow,  also  a  fine  and  swift  Hudson  River  boat  of  the  fourth 
decade,  whose  construction  and  appearance  reveal  further  progress  toward 
the  modern  type  of  eastern  river  craft.  She  was  afterward  wrecked  by 
striking  a  rock  in  the  river.  From  a  drawing  made  by  the  Scotch  civil 
engineer  David  Stevenson,  in  1837. 

boats  in  London  with  the  last  named  of  his  fellow  Ameri- 
cans without  also  becoming  informed  of  what  Fitch  had 
done.  Yet  it  may  have  happened  so. 

The  future  builder  of  the  Clermont  continued  in  Eng- 
land and  France  until  1801,  during  which  year  Chancellor 
Livingston  was  appointed  American  Minister  to  the  Court 
of  Napoleon.  In  Paris  Livingston  formed  an  acquaint- 
ance with  Fulton,  and  the  American  diplomat,  who  had 
already  built  a  steamboat,  at  once  entered  on  close  per- 
sonal association  with  the  young  civil  engineer,  out  of 
which  the  Clermont  grew,  and  which  was  only  to  be 
broken  by  Fulton's  death.  Both  men  were  interested 
in  the  use  of  steam  for  the  purposes  of  transportation, 
and  Livingston  urged  his  young  friend  to  pursue  the 
matter.  In  the  words  of  another  biographer  of  Fulton,1 

1  Cadwallader   D.    Golden,   in   his   "Life   of   Robert   Fulton":   pp.    148-149.      Taken   by 
Golden  from  a  statement  made  by  Livingston   at  a  later  date. 

358 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"he  [Livingston]  communicated  to  Mr.  Fulton  the  im- 
portance of  steamboats  to  their  own  country;  informed 
him  of  what  had  been  attempted  in  America,  and  of  his 
resolution  to  resume  the  pursuit  on  his  return,  and  advised 
him  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  subject." 

The  advice  was  unnecessary.  Fulton  had  been  watch- 
ing the  work  of  other  men  in  steam  navigation  for  some 
eight  or  nine  years  and  had  displayed  an  intelligent  in- 
terest in  Rumsey's  labors  as  far  back,  at  least,  as  the  year 
1792.  During  the  year  of  1793  he  had  also  been  in  cor- 
respondence with  Lord  Stanhope,  of  England,  regarding 
the  building  of  steamboats.  About  the  year  1802  Fulton, 
in  giving  consideration  to  the  question  of  propulsion, 
"thought  of  paddles  and  duck's  feet,  abandoning  which, 
he  took  up  the  idea  of  using  endless  chains  with  resisting 
boards  upon  them  as  propellers,  his  calculations  giving 
him  a  favorable  opinion  of  the  mode;  at  least,  he  was 
persuaded  it  was  greatly  preferable  to  any  other  method 
that  had  been  previously  tried."1  While  still  in  England, 
arid  in  1799,  Fulton  had  also  become  acquainted  with 
Cartwright,  inventor  of  the  power  loom,  and  by  him 
had  been  given  the  plan  or  model  of  a  steamboat  made 
by  the  Englishman  about  the  year  1787.2 

In  reciting  to  Fulton  what  had  been  accomplished  in 
America  previous  to  the  commencement  of  their  acquaint- 
ance in  Paris,  Livingston  might  well  have  gone  much 
further  than  merely  to  recount  the  list  of  steam-propelled 
boats  above  set  forth.  For  in  his  own  work  of  steamboat 
building  the  Chancellor  had  been  associated  with  John 
Stevens,  of  Hoboken,  and  with  Nicholas  J.  Roosevelt,  of 

1  Colden's   Biography  of  Fulton. 

An  endless  chain  of  paddles  was  the  first  propelling  system  tried  by  Fitch  and  almost 
at  once  discarded.     Stanhope  had  used  the  duck's-feet  paddles. 

2  Fulton  was  afterward  accused  of  selling,  as  his  own,  another  invention  of  Cartwright's 
• — a  cordage-laying  machine.     The  details  of  this  controversy   are  contained  in  Thornton's 
"Short  Account  of  the   Origin   of   Steam   Boats":   pp.    17-18. 

359 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

New  York,  and  the  three  men  had  long  been  at  courteous 
odds  over  the  proposed  details  of  their  vessel.  The  Chan- 
cellor, though  a  very  able  man,  was  a  bit  stubborn  in  his 
opinions  and  somewhat  intolerant  of  opposition.  He 
preferred  to  have  his  own  way.  The  trait  in  question 
had  been  shown  in  connection  with  the  boat  built  by  him 
and  his  two  colleagues  and  operated  in  1798  at  a  speed 
of  about  three  miles  an  hour.  Its  speed  not  having  been 
satisfactory,  Roosevelt  had  proposed  the  use  of  side 
paddle-wheels,  and  on  September  6th  of  the  same  year  had 
written  to  Livingston  as  follows: 

"I  would  recommend  that  we  throw  two  wheels  of 


Group  on  Deck. 


109. — Travellers  on  a  Hudson  River  steamboat.  As  suggested  by  the  attitude 
and  apparel  of  the  three  men  in  the  background,  the  costumes  worn  by  the 
other  group  were  becoming  obsolete.  The  object  on  the  bench  is  a  trav- 
eller's bag  called  the  "carpet-sack."  It  was  made  of  carpet,  and  often 
showed  a  combination  of  colors  such  as  red,  green,  brown,  blue  and  yellow. 
From  it  the  modern  hand-bag  and  suit-case  have  been  evolved. 

360 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

wood  over  the  sides,  fastened  to  the  axes  of  the  flys  with 
eight  arms  or  paddles;  that  part  which  enters  the  water 
of  sheet  iron  to  shift  according  to  the  power  they  require 
either  deeper  in  the  water,  or  otherwise,  and  that  we 
navigate  the  vessel  with  these  .  .  ."] 

The  Chancellor  sent  no  reply  to  the  suggestion  for 
upright  side  paddle-wheels,  so  Roosevelt  wrote  to  him 
again  on  the  same  subject  under  date  of  September  16th, 
saying:  "I  hope  to  hear  your  opinion  of  throwing  wheels 
over  the  sides."  To  this  Livingston  made  answer:  "I 
say  nothing  on  the  subject  of  wheels  over  the  sides,  as  I 
am  perfectly  convinced  from  a  variety  of  experiments  of 
the  superiority  of  those  we  have  adopted."1 

On  October  21st  Roosevelt  again  returned  to  the 
subject,  urging  a  trial  of  Livingston's  wheels,3  "contrasted 
with  paddles  on  Mr.  Stevens'  plan,  or  with  wheels  over 
the  sides,  so  as  to  ascertain  the  difference  in  the  applica- 
tion of  the  power."  The  Chancellor  finally  laid  down 
his  ultimatum  on  October  28th,  1798,  in  a  letter  to  Roose- 
velt characterizing  Stevens'  paddles  as  "too  inconvenient 
and  liable  to  accidents,"  and  in  which  hs  also  said,  "as 
for  vertical  wheels,  they  are  out  of  the  question."4 

Livingston's  activity  in  keeping  himself  abreast  of 
American  steamboat  building  before  he  went  to  France 
is  illustrated  by  his  personal  inspection  of  Morey's  boat 
in  1793  or  1794,  when  he  travelled  on  the  craft  from 
New  York  back  to  Greenwich.5  John  Stevens  was  also 
a  passenger  during  the  same  trip.  It  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand the  Chancellor's  later  prejudice  against  paddle- 
wheels  under  the  circumstances,  for  Morey's  vessel  had 

1  Latrobe's  "Lost   Chapter":  pp.  18-19. 

2  Ib:d:   p.   19. 

3  Which   revolved   on  a  horizontal   plane,   instead   of   vertically. 

4  Latrobe's   "Lost   (  hapter":    pp.    19-20. 
5Preble:  p.  29. 

361 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

been  propelled  by  a  stern  wheel  and  had  made  five  miles 
an  hour.  Nevertheless  his  influence  on  Fulton  must  have 
been  strong,  for  Fulton,  until  as  late  a  date  as  the  fall  of 
1802,  still  clung  to  side  oars  as  the  best  method  of  pro- 
pulsion for  a  steamboat.  On  September  20th,  1802,  the 
future  builder  of  the  Clermont  wrote  to  a  friend  on  the 
subject,1  and  in  his  letter  he  said:  ".  .  .  if  the  author 
of  the  model  wishes  to  be  assured  of  the  merits  of  his 
invention  before  he  goes  to  the  expense  of  a  patent  I 
advise  him  to  make  a  model  of  a  boat,  in  which  he  can 
place  a  clock  spring  which  will  give  about  eight  revolu- 
tions ;  he  can  then  combine  the  movements  so  as  to  try 
oars,  paddles,  and  the  leaves  [the  duck's-feet  system] 
which  he  proposes.  .  .  .  About  eight  years  ago  the  Earl 
of  Stanhope  tried  an  experiment  on  similar  leaves  in 
Greenland  Dock,  London,  but  without  success.  I  have 
also  tried  experiments  on  similar  leaves,  wheels,  oars, 
paddles,  and  flyers  similar  to  those  of  a  smoke  jack,  and 
found  oars  to  be  the  best." 

Just  as  Fulton  had  known  of  Rumsey's  presence  in 
London,  he  was  also  awrare  that  Fitch  had  proceeded  to 
Paris  in  1793  with  the  intention  of  building  steamboats 
there  in  association  with  Aaron  Vail,  American  consul 
at  L'Orient.  Possibly  the  incident  was  one  of  those  things 
told  to  him  by  Minister  Livingston  as  part  of  the  narrative 
concerning  what  had  been  done  in  America.  Livingston 
had  visited  Vail  and  had  discussed  Fitch's  boat  with  him.2 
At  any  rate  Fulton  went  to  see  Vail,  and  from  him 
borrowed  Fitch's  plans  and  drawings,  which  he  kept  for 
several  months.3  The  fact  that  Fitch's  steamboat  had 

1  See  Preble,  p.  35:  the  friend  was  Fulwar  Sklpwith,  an  American  consul  general  in 
France. 

-  Duer's   second   letter  to   Golden,   1818. 

3  Preble;  Thornton;  Duer;  etc.,  etc.  For  Vail's  relation  of  the  matter  see  Cutting's 
letter  to  Ferdinando  Fairfax,  printed  in  Thornton's  "Short  Account." 

362 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

^__^/ 

been  the  only  one  in  extensive  public  use  up  to  that  time, 
and  a  knowledge  of  its  propulsion  by  side  oars  and  later  by 
stern  paddles,  together  with  a  study  of  the  earlier  in- 
ventor's own  plans,  may  have  been  factors  impelling 
Fulton  toward  oars  as  the  best  propelling  power  despite 
Roosevelt's  advocacy  of  side  wheels  and  Livingston's 
voyage  on  a  paddle-wheel  boat.  But  whatever  the  cause 
may  have  been,  Fulton  did  not,  until  late  in  1802  or  early 
in  1803,  devote  serious  attention  to  the  revolving  side 
paddles  previously  twice  used  in  America  by  Morey,  also 
urged  by  the  Americans,  Reed  and  Roosevelt,  and  used 
in  Europe  by  the  Frenchman  Jouffroy,  the  Scotchmen 
Millar,  Taylor  and  Symington,  and  the  Englishman 
Smith. 

In  the  year  1803  Fulton  built  a  steamboat  on  the  Seine 
at  Paris.  Owing  to  miscalculations  in  its  construction  the 
machinery  overweighted  the  hull,  broke  through  the  bot- 
tom of  it  and  sunk  the  vessel.1  A  new  boat,  sixty-six 
feet  long  and  eight  feet  wide,  was  then  constructed,  but 
when  tried  in  August  of  1804  she  moved  too  slowly  to 
be  of  value.  Fulton  thereupon  paid  a  visit  to  Symington 
of  Scotland,2  who  had  built  the  stern-wheel  steamboat 
Charlotte  Dundas  and  run  her  at  six  miles  an  hour.  "In 
compliance  with  Mr.  Fulton's  earnest  request,"  says 
Symington,  "I  caused  the  engine  fire  to  be  lighted  up, 
and  in  a  short  time  thereafter  put  the  steamboat  in  motion, 
and  carried  him  from  Lock  16,  where  the  boat  then  lay, 
four  miles  west  in  the  canal,  and  returned  to  the  place  of 
starting,  in  one  hour  and  twenty  minutes,  to  the  great 

1  "On   the   very   day   that   this   misfortune    happened   he   commenced    repairing   it.      He 
did   not  sit  idly   down   to   repine   at   misfortune   which    his   manly   exertions   might    remedy, 
or  waste  in   fruitless  lamentations  a   moment   of  that  time  in  which  the  accident  might  be 
repaired.      Without    returning    to    his    lodgings,    he    immediately   began    to    labour   with    his 
own   hands  to  raise  the  boat,  and  worked   twenty-four   hours  incessantly,  without  allowing 
himself   rest   or   taking   refreshment — an  imprudence   wHch.   as  he  always   supposed,   had   a 
permanent  bad  effect  on  his  constitution,  and  to  which  he  imputed  much  of  his  subsequent 
bad   health." — Reigart's   "Life  of   Fulton." 

2  Woodcroft's   "Progress  of  Steam   Navigation."     London,  1848. 

363 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


110. — Going  to  bed  in  the  men's  cabin  of  a  big  eastern  steamboat.  The  sleeping- 
bunk  idea  of  the  earlier  river  barges  had  been  appropriated  by  all  later 
water  craft  designed  for  passenger  traffic.  Ladders  or  other  climbing  aids 
were  only  required  for  the  topmost  tier  of  bunks. 

astonishment  of  Mr.  Fulton  and  several  gentlemen,  who  at 
our  outset  chanced  to  come  on  board."1  Fulton  also  took 
drawings  of  the  machinery  used  to  operate  the  Charlotte 
Dundas.' 

After   this   actual    ride   on   a   steamboat   Fulton   was 


1  Preble :   p.   36. 
a  Woodcroft. 


364 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

greatly  encouraged,  and  returned  to  his  task  with  a  per- 
sonal knowledge  that  the  work  whereon  he  was  then 
engaged  could  be  brought  to  a  successful  conclusion. 
Previous  to  that  time  he  had  been  compelled  to  depend 
on  hearsay  information  from  Livingston  regarding  what 
other  men  had  done,  coupled  with  his  study  of  Fitch's 
drawings.  Such  information  was  now  supplanted  by  a 
certainty  born  of  personal  experience.  The  occasional 
doubt  or  skepticism  manifested  by  some  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen  after  he  had  returned  to  New  York  and  was 
busy  in  superintending  the  building  of  the  hull  of  the 
Clermont  was  ignored  by  Fulton,  for  he  knew  steamboats 
could  be  constructed  and  operated. 

The  unfortunate  experience  of  1803,  when  his  own 
engine  had  sunk  a  boat  on  the  Seine,  together  with  the 
failure  of  the  same  machinery  in  1804  had,  in  the  mean- 
time, made  him  realize  the  necessity  of  securing  com- 
petent help  in  constructing  the  essential  parts  of  a 
steamboat.  Under  date  of  November  3,  1803,  he  had 
written  a  letter  to  Messrs.  Boulton  and  Watt,  the  ablest 
machinery  builders  of  England,  indicating  his  desire  to 
have  them  make  him  what  he  required.1  In  it  he  stated : 

.  "I  have  not  confidence  in  any  other  engines,  and  hope  you 
will  be  so  good  as  to  give  me  the  necessary  information  on  the  boiler  and 
other  parts  so  as  to  produce  the  best  effect.  .  .  ." 

He  already  desired  to  return  to  America  and  build  a 
steamboat.  But  as  England  then  forbade  the  exportation 
of  machinery  to  any  other  country  without  express  per- 
mission of  the  Privy  Council  in  each  instance,  and  as  he 
could  not  build  his  own  engine  and  had  no  confidence 
in  any  but  such  as  were  made  by  Boulton  and  Watt,  he 

1  The  original  letter  is  now  in  the  New  York  City  Public  Library,  Department  of  Manu- 
scripts. 

365 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


111. — Substantially  similar  arrangements  prevailed  in  the  women's  cabin,  which, 
however,  commonly  had  but  two  rows  of  berths. 

sought  the  aid  of  America's  diplomatic  representative  in 
Great  Britain.  The  United  States  Minister  to  the  Court 
of  St.  James  at  the  time  was  James  Monroe,  and  to  him 
Fulton  wrote  on  November  6,  1 803,  as  follows  i1 

"You  have  perhaps  heard  of  the  success  of  my  experiment  for  navigat- 
ing boats  by  steam  engines  and  you  will  feel  the  importance  of  establish- 
ing such  boats  on  the  Mississippi  and  other  rivers  of  the  United  States 
as  soon  as  possible.  With  this  View  I  have  written  to  Messrs.  Boul- 
ton  Watt  &  Co.  of  Birmingham  to  forward  me  a  Steam  engine  to 
America. 

1  The  original   is   in  the   New  York  City  Library. 

366 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"Your  desire  to  see  useful  improvements  Introduced  or  created  in 
our  country  is  the  strongest  reason  for  your  urging  the  permission  and 
accepting  of  no  refusal.  The  fact  is  I  cannot  establish  the  boat  without 
the  engine.  The  question  then  is  Shall  we  or  shall  we  not  have  such 
boats." 

Reasons  of  diplomacy  made  Monroe  unable  to  ask  for 
an  engine  at  the  time,  and  he  so  informed  his  fellow 
American  in  Paris.  In  reply  to  the  Minister's  letter  Ful- 
ton wrote  again  on  March  4  jlSCH:1 

"I  received  your  letter  mentioning  that  particular  reasons  prevented 
your  applying  at  present  for  permission  to  ship  a  Steam  engine  to 
New  York.  ...  As  the  Steam  Engine  is  really  designed  for  a 
Steam  Boat  and  has  no  connexion  with  any  of  my  other  mechanical  Ex- 
periments, and  as  the  Establishment  of  Steam  boats  is  of  immense  im- 
portance to  our  country  the  British  Government  must  have  little  friend- 
ship or  even  civility  toward  America  if  they  refuse  such  a  request.  .  .  . 

"Independent  of  the  private  interest  which  I  have  in  establishing 
steam  boats,  I  consider  them  of  such  infinite  use  in  America,  and  feel 
so  sensible  of  the  Activity  and  perseverance  which  is  necessary  to  make 
the  first  establishment  and  secure  success,  that  I  should  feel  a  culpable 
neglect  toward  my  country  if  I  relaxed  for  a  moment  in  pursuing  every 
necessary  measure  for  carrying  it  into  effect.  I  hope  Sir  you  will  be 
governed  by  equal  patriotism  and  not  accept  a  slight  refusal. 
The  government  has  permitted  engines  to  be  sent  to  France  and  Holland 
before  the  war  and  do  now  permit  them  to  go  to  Russia  they  surely  then, 
can  have  no  objection  to  let  one  go  to  a  neutral  and  unoffending  coun- 
try like  the  United  States.  ...  I  plead  this  not  for  myself  alone 
but  for  our  country.  . 

Such  were  the  preliminary  links  in  the  long  chain  of 
events  that  finally  resulted  in  the  general  introduction 
of  steam  transportation.  Fulton  did  not  himself  build 
either  the  machinery  or  hull  of  his  first  boat  or  devise 
the  system  used  for  its  propulsion.  After  his  mishap  of 
1803  he  abandoned  the  effort  to  create  the  ingredients 
which  differentiate  a  steam-propelled  craft  from  a  sail- 
ing vessel.  Instead  of  persisting  in  the  endeavor  to  solve 
the  problem — with  drawings  of  Fitch's  eight-mile-an- 

1  Fulton's   original  is  in   the   New   York  City  Library. 

367 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

hour  engine  and  Symington's  machinery  to  aid  him — he 
turned  to  Boulton  and  Watt  for  the  necessary  informa- 
tion on  the  boiler  and  other  parts  so  as  to  produce  the 
best  effect.  His  statement  that  patriotism  was  one  motive 
for  the  undertaking  was  of  course  genuine,  as  Fitch's 
identical  utterances  of  years  before  had  been,  but  the 
activity  and  perseverance  necessary  to  secure  success,  and 
his  pursuance  of  every  necessary  measure  consisted,  after 
the  attempt  of  1803-1804,  in  asking  a  second  person  to 
secure  from  another  government  the  work  of  a  third  per- 
son without  which  he  said  he  could  do  nothing  more  to 
advance  his  project. 

England  finally  permitted  him  to  obtain  the 
mechanical  appliances  he  required,  and  they  were  shipped 
to  New  York.  Fulton  returned  to  America,  where,  after 


112. — A  few  steamboats  built  on  the  catamaran  principle  were  used  in  the  East, 

but   never   with    success.     The    old    double-canoe    idea    did    not 

Drove  useful  when  applied  to  steam  navigation. 

368 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

inspecting  a  model  of  Morey's  steamboat  and  holding 
three  interviews  with  its  inventor,1  he  commenced  the  con- 
struction of  the  Clermont.  The  hull  was  built  by  Charles 
Brown,  a  ship  builder  of  New  York,  under  the  super- 
vision of  Fulton  himself,  aided  by  a  young  mechanic 
named  Stoudinger,  who  had  been  employed  and  trained 
by  Nicholas  Roosevelt,  and  who  became  Fulton's  right- 
hand  man.  The  Boulton  and  Watt  machinery  was  duly 
put  in  place.  It  propelled  the  boat  up  the  river  on  her 
first  trip  and  during  the  remainder  of  her  career. 

Immediately  after  the  first  trip  of  his  vessel  to  Albany, 
Fulton  wrote  several  letters  about  the  voyage.  In  one 
addressed  to  his  friend,  Joel  Barlow,  he  said:  "The  power 
of  propelling  boats  by  steam  is  now  fully  proved.  The 
morning  I  left  New  York  there  were  not  thirty  persons 
who  believed  that  the  boat  would  ever  move  one  mile  an 
hour  or  be  of  the  least  utility;  and  while  we  were  passing 
off  from  the  wharf,  which  was  crowded  with  spectators, 
I  heard  a  number  of  sarcastic  remarks.  This  is  the  way 
in  which  ignorant  men  compliment  what  they  call  philoso- 
phers and  projectors.  Although  the  prospect  of  personal 
emolument  has  been  some  inducement  to  me,  yet  I  feel 
infinitely  more  pleasure  in  reflecting  on  the  immense  ad- 
vantage my  country  will  derive  from  the  invention."1 

The  Clermont,  as  she  appeared  before  being  rsbuilt, 
was  somewhat  ungainly  of  aspect.  Her  boiler  was  set  in 
masonry  and  all  the  machinery  was  exposed  to  view.  A 
very  small  distance  at  bow  and  stern  was  decked  over. 
The  smokestack  was  thirty  feet  high,  and  out  of  its  top 
roared  flames  and  sparks  from  the  dry  white  pine  used 
as  fuel.  The  engine  groaned  in  its  labors,  and  a  man  with  a 

1  Preble:  p.  30.     Whether  Fulton  examined  a  model  of  Morey's  stern-wheeler  or  of  his 
later  side-wheel  boat  is  uncertain. 

2  Colden's  "Life  of  Fulton":   p.   176. 

369 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL   IN  AMERICA 

pot  of  molten  lead  was  constantly  running  about  to  stop  up 
leaks  from  which  steam  escaped.  The  rudder  had  so  little 
power  as  to  be  almost  useless.  During  the  winter  follow- 
ing her  first  appearance  the  hull  was  lengthened,  new 
steering  apparatus  installed,  the  deck  was  extended  from 
stem  to  stern  and  two  cabins  were  built  below  for  the 
accommodation  of  passengers.  Around  the  walls  of  the 
cabins  were  upper  and  lower  sleeping  berths,  as  in  the  keel 
boats  of  the  previous  generation.  The  whole  extent  of 
woodwork  was  then  painted  in  various  bright  colors,  and 
in  her  new  guise  the  boat  was  quite  the  most  imposing  con- 
veyance for  public  travel  ever  yet  seen  in  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XX 

DELAY  IN  THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  STEAMBOATS  —  ITS  CAUSE 
-A  LOST  OPPORTUNITY  —  FITCH'S  RIGHTS  IN  NEW 
YORK  TRANSFERRED  TO  FULTON  AND  LIVINGSTON  - 
THEY  PLAN  A  GENERAL  MONOPOLY  —  THE  COURTS 
CLASS  STEAMBOATS,  ALONG  WITH  INFECTED  GOODS, 
AS  THINGS  WHOSE  ENTRY  INTO  THE  STATE  MAY  BE 
FORBIDDEN  —  COMPETITION  APPEARS  —  NEW  YORK'S 
LEGISLATURE  AUTHORIZES  FULTON  TO  SEIZE  COMPET- 
ING BOATS  —  IT  ALSO  PROVIDES  THAT  THEIR  OWNERS 
MAY  BE  PUT  IN  PRISON  --  FIRST  STEAMBOAT  ON  THE 
OHIO  AND  MISSISSIPPI  —  ATTITUDE  OF  THE  PEOPLE  AS 
THEY  BEHELD  IT  —  WHAT  HAPPENED  AT  LOUISVILLE 

THE  first  trip  of  the  Clermont  was  a  memorable  event 
in  economic  history.  It  was  not  invested  with  that 
quality  by  any  radical  difference  between  it  and  what  had 
been  done  before,  for  there  was  no  such  difference,  but  by 
the  popular  comprehension  of  its  significance.  An 
awakened  public  at  last  admitted  the  relation  of  steam  to 
the  coming  years.  With  that  acknowledgment  the  old 
order  of  things  passed,  and  the  world  of  to-day  was  born. 
We  have  traced  the  origin  of  the  application  of  steam 
power  to  transportation  in  America,  observed  the  attitude 
of  the  people  toward  steamboats  during  a  period  of  about 
twenty-two  years,  and  seen  the  close  kinship  borne  by  those 
early  boats  to  one  another.  It  is  now  appropriate  to 
consider  the  delay  which  intervened  between  Fulton's 

371 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

first  undertaking  and  the  general  use  of  steamboats,  to- 
gether with  the  relationship  between  that  delay  and  the 
long  chain  of  circumstances  resulting  in  the  Clermont's 
creation.  The  connection  was  direct,  and  reveals  the  men- 
tal horizon  of  the  generations  that  lived  before  modern 
conditions  were  imagined.  If  we  of  to-day  feel  astonish- 
ment because  the  leaders  of  a  century  ago  were  in  large 
degree  blind  to  mankind's  impending  development,  it  is 
only  necessary  to  remember  the  laughter  which,  a  few 
years  since,  greeted  any  prediction  that  men  would  soon 
arise  from  the  earth  and  fly  through  the  air  with  wings 
of  their  own  manufacture. 

A  foresight  of  the  future  is  possessed  only  by  those 
who  are  indeed  great — and  by  few  of  them.  The  aver- 
age man  gives  thought  to  the  relationship  between  his 
individual  affairs  and  the  approaching  years,  but  under 
ordinary  circumstances  the  distant  necessities  of  human 
society  are  likely  to  be,  in  his  estimation,  a  bugaboo.  He 
does  not  sufficiently  consider  that  the  coming  men  must 
build  on  a  foundation  which  he  and  his  contemporaries 
are  laying  day  by  day,  and  that  if  his  work  is  faulty  then 
the  structure  it  must  uphold  will  be  insecure  or  inade- 
quate. Deliberate  and  intelligent  national  preparation 
for  the  economic  needs  of  the  future — especially  in  a 
country  rich  in  natural  resources — is  a  process  not  to  be 
expected  unless  those  chosen  to  administer  its  affairs  are 
brave,  wise,  far-seeing  and  unselfish  men  uninfluenced  by 
sectional  jealousies,  and  possessed  of  a  strength  having 
its  roots  in  the  widespread  confidence  and  support  of  their 
fellows  and  a  slowly  evolved  popular  appreciation  of 
social  duty. 

When  Fitch  conceived  the  idea  of  carrying  people 
by  steam  power  he  went  to  the  central  governing  body  of 

372 


=  - 


301 
M 

"    3 


3  ° 


O 


3-5 
ft  < 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

all  the  states  and  offered  it  to  them.  He  saw  its  scope  and 
effect,  and  suggested  appropriate  national  action.  No 
nation  had  before — or  has  since — been  placed  in  a  position 
to  obtain  a  public  utility  of  such  importance  for  the  un- 
trammeled  use  of  its  inhabitants.  Those  results  which 
would  have  followed  if  the  government  had  acquired  the 
inventor's  system  of  transportation  in  behalf  of  the  people 
may  readily  be  imagined.  It  could  have  been  obtained  on 
whatever  terms  Congress  might  have  chosen  to  make. 
Fitch  asked  nothing  for  himself.  He  said  to  the  Con- 
gress of  the  Confederation  in  1787:  "I  do  not  desire  at 
this  time  to  receive  emoluments  for  my  own  private  use, 
but  to  lay  it  out  for  the  benefit  of  my  country  .... 
Congress  might  at  a  future  day  reward  me  further,  ac- 
cording as  they  should  see  the  utility  of  the  scheme  mer- 
ited it  ....  I  do  not  wish  any  premiums  to 
make  a  monopoly  to  myself."1 

Had  Congress  then  acted,  the  chief  aid  to  national 
economic  progress  would  not  have  become  a  subject  of 
monopoly  and  legal  controversy  for  nearly  forty  years, 
as  was  destined  to  be  the  case.  But  the  Federal  legislature 
was  then  a  body  with  scarcely  a  vestige  of  authority,  re- 
duced to  that  status  by  the  conflicting  desires,  antagon- 
isms and  other  like  attitudes  of  the  states  represented  in 
its  membership.  Each  commonwealth,  imbued  with  a 
greater  or  less  degree  of  jealousy  toward  its  neighbors  and 
a  feeling  of  separate  sovereignty,  was  blinded  to  the  inter- 
dependence and  close  relation  destined  to  subsist  between 
them.  Even  the  framing  of  a  common  political  pro- 
gramme was  exceedingly  difficult  of  accomplishment,  and 
harmonious  action  for  the  best  interests  of  all  in  those 
social  and  economic  matters  which  are  superior  to  state 

1  His  second  petition  to   Congress. 

374 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

lines  was  still  more  so.  In  fact,  the  idea  of  an  economic 
and  social  nationality  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
overwhelmed  by  political  considerations.  The  real  basis 
of  lasting  and  beneficial  union  was  at  first  subsidiary  to 
its  outward  shell.  A  failure  on  the  part  of  Congress  to 
see  the  value  of  Fitch's  plan  was  the  first  misfortune,  and 
it  was  speedily  followed  by  a  second  in  the  shape  of  the 
exclusive  grants  made  by  individual  states. 

New  York's  grant  to  Fitch,  given  in  1787,  bestowed 
on  him  a  monopoly  of  steam  transportation  on  the  waters 
of  the  state  for  fourteen  years.  In  1798,  as  has  been  seen, 
Fitch's  privilege  was  cancelled  by  New  York  and  trans- 
ferred bodily  to  Livingston  for  twenty  years,  provided  he 
ran  a  steamboat  at  four  miles  an  hour  within  a  twelve- 
month. This  he  failed  to  do,  and  the  grant  of  1798  did  not 
then  become  effective.  But  on  April  5,  1803,  the  privilege 
of  1798  was  revived  by  New  York  and  again  bestowed  on 
Livingston  for  twenty  years  from  the  second  passage  of 
the  law,  provided  a  boat  was  run  at  four  miles  an  hour 
within  two  years.  Fulton  was  made  a  joint  beneficiary  un- 
der the  act  with  Livingston.  Nothing  was  done  to  secure 
the  monopoly  within  the  specified  time,  and  the  period 
allowed  to  them  was  extended  until  1807.  In  that  year 
the  Clermont  was  completed  and  put  in  use. 

The  exclusive  privilege  held  by  Livingston  and  Ful- 
ton, then,  was  the  act  originally  passed  in  Fitch's  favor 
twenty  years  previously,  and  it  was  under  the  terms  of  the 
monopolistic  grant  that  the  Clermont  was  operated.  The 
two  men,  just  as  Fitch  had  been,  were  given  the  power 
to  seize  any  steamboat  run  by  others  without  their  license, 
and  to  collect  a  penalty  for  every  trip  so  made.  When 
the  proposed  legislation  in  Livingston's  favor  was  intro- 
duced in  the  New  York  Assembly  in  1798,  its  title  was: 

375 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"An  act  repealing  the  act  for  granting  and  securing  to 
John  Fitch  the  sole  right  and  advantage  of  making  and 
employing  the  steamboat  by  him  lately  invented,  and  for 
other  purposes."  The  other  purposes  were  the  transfer- 
ence of  Fitch's  privileges  to  the  Chancellor.1 


114. — In  the  pioneer  days  of  mechanical  transportation  vehicles  the  "Rewards 
of  Merit"  bestowed  on  school  children  for  diligence  and  good  behavior 
were  frequently  embellished  with  pictures  of  steamboats  and  railroad  trains, 
in  order  to  give  the  pupils  a  better  knowledge  of  the  busy  world  outside. 
Their  school  books  also  showed  such  vehicles.  See  illustration  No.  214. 

Fulton's  biographers,  either  through  an  ignorance  of 
prior  steamboat  history  or  a  tendency  to  magnify  the 
work  of  the  man  whom  they  discussed,  have  omitted  men- 
tion of  various  things  relating  to  his  connection  with  and 
study  of  steam  vessels  constructed  by  other  men  before  he 
built  the  Clermont.  They  have  phrased  their  accounts 
of  his  relation  to  the  subject  in  such  a  way  as  to  convey 

1  ".  .  .  the  same  privilege  granted  to  Chancellor  Livingston  by  the  act  of  1798  was 
;ranted  in  April,  1803,  to  Messrs.  Livingston  and  Fulton." — Judge  Yates'  opinion  in  the 
ase  of  Livingston  against  Van  Ingen;  9  "Johnson's  Reports":  p.  558. 


g 
case 


376 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

an  impression  that  Fulton  was  the  American  inventor 
of  steam  propulsion,  or  at  least  of  paddle-wheels.  One  of 
them,1  in  discussing  New  York's  transfer  of  Fitch's 
monopoly  to  Livingston  in  1798,  says:  "The  Legislature, 
in  March,  1798,  passed  an  act  vesting  Mr.  Livingston  with 
the  exclusive  right  and  privilege  of  navigating  all  kinds 
of  boats  which  might  be  propelled  by  the  force  of 
steam.  .  .  ."  He  makes  no  mention  of  the  main  purpose 
of  the  law,  to  which  the  transfer  was  a  sequel.2  He  also 
quotes  the  introducer  of  the  bilP  as  saying:  "The  wags 
and  the  lawyers  in  the  House  were  generally  op- 
posed to  my  bill.  .  .  .  One  main  ground  of  their  objec- 
tion was,  that  it  was  an  idle  and  whimsical  project, 
unworthy  of  legislative  attention.  .  .  ."  The  subject  mat- 
ter of  the  bill  under  discussion,  as  its  title  indicated,  dealt 
with  a  law  that  had  been  on  the  statute  books  of  the  state 
for  eleven  years,  and  with  a  device  publicly  used  eight 
years  before  the  law  was  passed. 

The  same  biographer  quotes  Chancellor  Livingston  as 
saying:4  "After  trying  a  variety  of  experiments  on  a  small 
scale,  on  models  of  his5  own  invention,  it  was  understood 
that  he  had  developed  the  true  principles  upon  which 
steamboats  should  be  built,  and  for  the  want  of  knowing 
which  all  previous  experiments  had  failed.  But  as  these 
two  gentlemen  both  knew  that  many  things  which  were 
apparently  perfect  when  tried  on  a  small  scale,  failed 
when  reduced  to  practice  upon  a  large  one,  they  deter- 
mined to  go  to  the  expense  of  building  an  operating  boat 
upon  the  Seine.  This  was  done  in  the  year  1803,  at  their 

1  Reigart. 

2  Nor  does  Golden,  whose  prior  reference  to  the   matter  is  contained  in  p.  145  of  his 
"Life  of  Fulton."     Reigart  copied   from   Golden. 

3  Dr.  Mitchell,  of  New  York  City,  a  friend  of  Livingston's. 

4  In   Livingston's   "Historical   Account  of  the  Application  of  Steam   for  the  Propelling 
of  Boats." 

5  Fulton's. 

377 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


115. — The  steamboat  MihoattKe,  one  of  the  most  pretentious  vessels  on  the 
Great  Lakes  in  1838.  Passing  the  Iighthou«e  at  Buffalo.  Engraved  by 
Bennett  from  a  drawing  by  the  artist  J.  C.  Miller.  This  and  the  illustra- 
tions to  No.  127,  inclusive,  relate  to  steamboats  on  western  waters. 

joint  expense,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Fulton;  and  so 
fully  evinced  the  justice  of  his  principles  that  it  was 
immediately  determined  to  enrich  their  country  by  the 
valuable  discovery  as  soon  as  they  should  meet  there,  and 
in  the  meantime  to  order  an  engine  to  be  made  in 
-England.  .  .  .m 

Chancellor  Livingston  did  not  clearly  define  the  true 
principles  and  valuable  discovery  here  mentioned.  By 
some  later  commentators  his  language  has  been  considered 
to  refer  to  the  use  of  paddle-wheels,  but  since  both  Liv- 
ingston and  Fulton  had  travelled  on  paddle-wheel  steam- 
boats several  years  before  the  Clermont  was  built,  and 
since  the  Chancellor  had  considered  Roosevelt's  plan  for 

1  This  was  written  by  Livingston  after  the  "Clermont"  was  built.     Quoted  by  Golden  at 
pp.  149-150  of  the  "Life." 

378 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

paddle-wheels  and  rejected  it  as  out  of  the  question,  the 
hypothesis  falls  unless  those  who  advance  it  are  willing 
to  believe  that  Livingston  sought  to  give  his  young  asso- 
ciate a  credit  he  did  not  deserve. 

For  some  reason  regarding  which  no  definite  record 
seems  to  exist,  Fulton  and  his  colleague  did  not  at  once 
apply  to  the  national  government  for  a  patent  on  the 
Clermont,  although  in  those  days  one  could  be  had  for 
the  asking.  They  relied  for  their  protection,  instead,  on 
the  terms  of  the  old  Fitch  monopoly  in  New  York  state, 
and  sought  to  enforce  it  against  various  other  men,  who 
began  to  build  and  operate  steam  craft  after  it  became 
apparent  that  the  boat  of  1807  was  a  popular  conveyance. 
But  in  1809  a  Federal  patent  was  applied  for  and  ob- 
tained. In  relating  the  circumstances  under  which  it 
was  secured,  the  first  biographer1  of  Fulton  uses  language 
which  again  conveys  an  impression  that  the  builder  of  the 
Clermont  was  to  be  accredited  as  the  inventor  of  a  steam 
vessel  of  its  description,  and  that  Chancellor  Livingston 
endorsed  such  a  claim.  He  says:  "They2  entered  into 
a  contract  by  which  it  was,  among  other  things,  agreed 
that  a  patent  should  be  taken  out  in  the  United  States  in 
Mr.  Fulton's  name,  which  Mr.  Livingston  well  knew 
could  not  be  done  without  Mr.  Fulton  taking  an  oath 
that  the  improvement  was  solely  his."3  The  improvement 
meant  was  the  use  of  paddle-wheels. 

Two  other  boats,  the  Raritan  and  Car  of  Neptune, 
were  begun  by  Fulton  soon  after  the  popular  success  of 
the  Clermont  was  seen  to  be  assured,  and  were  later  put 
into  commission.  Serious  opposition  to  the  monopoly  in 
travel  by  steam  power  had  developed  by  1810,  and  in 


1  Cadvvallader   Golden. 

2  Meaning   Livingston   and   Fulton. 

3  "Life":   p.   147. 


379 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

that  year  a  rival  company  was  formed  in  Albany  to  run 
steamboats  on  the  Hudson  River  in  spite  of  the  state  law. 
Fulton  tried  to  fight  this  competition  by  the  old  Fitch 
grant  rather  than  under  his  Federal  patent,  and  applied 
to  the  proper  New  York  legal  tribunal  for  an  injunction 
preventing  the  use  of  any  other  boats  but  his  own.  The 
application  was  refused  on  the  ground  that  the  state  statute 
permitting  monopoly  in  steam  transportation  was  in  con- 
flict with  national  patent  legislation  and  superseded  by  it. 
On  appeal  to  a  higher  state  court  the  decision  against 
Fulton  was  reversed  and  he  was  left  free  to  prove,  by  the 
merits  of  his  case,  that  rival  vessels  should  be  permanently 
restrained  from  activity. 

Up  to  the  time  in  question  Livingston  and  Fulton 
had  been  beneficiaries  under  four  acts  passed  by  the  state 
in  1798,  1799,  1803  and  1807,  all  of  which  gave  them 
exclusive  rights  to  use  steam  power  for  water  transporta- 
tion. But  in  all  those  four  enactments  the  monopoly 
was  based  on  the  language  of  the  legislation  of  1798, 
which  said:  ".  .  .  privileges  similar  to  those  granted 
to  the  said  John  Fitch,  in  and  by  the  before  mentioned 
Act,  be  and  they  hereby  are  extended  to  the  said  Robert, 
for  the  term  of  twenty  years.  .  .  ."  The  forfeiture  of 
competing  boats,  and  penalties  for  their  use,  were  thus 
asserted  without  any  provision  for  enforcing  the  decree 
except  such  means  as  were  afforded  under  ordinary  proc- 
ess of  law.  So  if  Fulton  had  then  sued  a  competitor,  it 
might  have  been  possible  for  his  rival  to  have  prolonged 
the  litigation  for  years  and  to  have  kept  the  opposition 
boats  in  operation  meanwhile,  even  if  the  decision  had 
at  last  gone  against  him.  This  was  not  an  agreeable  situa- 
tion for  the  owners  of  the  Clermont  and  Paragon  to 
contemplate,  and  so  in  1811  they  secured  from  the  legis- 

380 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

lature  a  fifth  law  in  which  their  right  to  demand  for- 
feiture of  any  usurping  steamboat  was  reaffirmed  in  more 
specific  terms.  By  the  grant  of  1811  Livingston  and 
Fulton  were  given  the  same  remedy  for  the  seizure  of  a 
rival  craft  as  they  would  have  possessed  if  the  opposition 


116. — The  Ohio  and  Mississippi  River  steamboat  Belv'dere.  A  picture  used 
for  years  in  England,  Germany  and  elsewhere  in  Europe  to  illustrate  the 
flimsy  and  dangerous  construction  of  many  western  river  boats.  The 
Belvidere  was  built  at  the  town  of  Portsmouth,  Ohio,  in  1825,  escaped  all 
dangers  incident  to  her  duties,  and  survived  to  the  venerable  age  of  six 
years  before  being  worn  out.  The  average  life  of  an  early  western  steam- 
boat was  about  three  or  four  years. 

boat  had  been  wrongfully  taken  out  of  their  possession. 
The  law  of  1811  further  compelled  the  courts  to  grant  an 
injunction  forbidding  the  use  of  any  competing  steam 
vessel  whenever  Fulton  should  bring  suit  for  forfeiture. 
And  to  cap  the  climax  it  made  any  rival  owner  liable  to 
a  fine  of  two  thousand  dollars  and  imprisonment  for  a 

381 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

year  if  he  operated  a  steamboat  without  Fulton's  license 
and  permission. 

Drastic  as  this  law  was,  it  still  did  not  serve  entirely  to 
suppress  competition  in  steam  transportation.  The  legis- 
lature could  not  make  the  statute  of  1811  retroactive  in 
its  operation  and  so  its  new  provisions  had  no  effect 
against  the  steamboats  already  built  by  the  Albany  com- 
pany for  use  on  the  Hudson  River,  or  against  a  boat  called 
the  Vermont,  then  running  on  Lake  Champlain. 
Courts  and  legislature  were  doing  all  they  could  to  restrict 
the  new  travel  method,  but  the  public  took  a  decided  stand 
against  monopoly  and  gave  the  bulk  of  its  patronage  to 
the  independent  line.  Advocates  of  the  free  and  unre- 
stricted use  of  steam  travel  asserted  that  Fulton  had 
not  invented  steamboats  and  therefore  had  no  legal 
or  moral  right  to  their  exclusive  employment,  while  the 
Livingston-Fulton  company  and  its  supporters  denounced 
the  intruders  as  rogues,  rascals  and  law-breaking  ingrates.1 
Cadwallader  Colden  describes  the  situation  of  1811  and 
its  effect  in  the  following  words:2 

"The  consequences  which  Messrs.  Livingston  and  Fulton  had 
anticipated  from  the  establishment  of  the  Albany  boats  were  fully  real- 
ized. There  was  a  combination  to  break  down  Messrs.  Livingston  and 
Fulton,  which  it  was  obvious  they  could  not  resist.  The  owners  of  the 
Albany  boats  having  their  residence  in  this  city,  being  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  all  its  inhabitants,  and  their  influence  extending  to  the 
remotest  parts  of  the  state,  were  enabled  to  divert  almost  all  the  pas- 
sengers from  the  boats  of  Messrs.  Livingston  and  Fulton.  The  Albany 
proprietors  had  not  only  their  agents  in  every  tavern  in  this  city,  but 

1  Livingston  wrote  two  pamphlets  at  this  time  in  support  of  the  monopoly  enjoyed  by 
Fulton    and    himself,   and    discussing   the    relationship    of    national    patents   to    state    rights. 
Their  titles  are: 

"An  inquiry  into  the  effect  that  a  patent  might  have  upon  the  exclusive  privileges 
granted  by  the  state  to  Messrs.  Livingston  and  Fulton."  New  York;  n.d. 

"The  right  of  a  state  to  grant  exclusive  privileges  in  roads,  bridges,  canals,  navigable 
•waters,  etc.,  vindicated  by  a  candid  examination  of  the  grant  from  the  state  of  New  York 
to,  and  contract  with  Robert  R.  Livingston  and  Robert  Fulton,  for  the  exclusive  naviga- 
tion of  vessels  by  steam  or  fire,  for  a  limited  time,  on  the  waters  of  said  stpte,  and 
within  the  jurisdiction  thereof."  New  York,  1811. 

2  See   "A   Vindication   by   Cadwallader   D.   Colden,   of  the   Steam   Boat    Right   granted 
by   the   State  of   New   York,"   etc.,  Albany,   1818;   pp.   147-8. 

382 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

their  emissaries  on  every  road.  These  men  made  it  their  business,  not 
only  to  seduce  to  the  boats  of  their  employers  the  persons  who  wanted 
a  passage  to  New  York,  but  to  traduce  Mr.  Livingston  and  Mr.  Fulton 
by  the  most  wanton  misrepresentations.  Such  an  effect  did  this  wicked 
industry  produce,  that  the  latter  gentleman  was  looked  upon  by  many 
who  had  hearkened  to  his  calumniators  as  a  vile  impostor;  and  often 
have  I  listened  with  indignation  to  his  calm  and  magnanimous  recitals 
of  the  personal  abuse  and  indignities  he  was  daily  accustomed  to 
meet  .  .  . 

"I  was  once  myself  a  witness  of  the  effects  of  these  measures.  In 
the  summer  of  1811  I  was  a  passenger  on  board  the  Paragon,  then 
new  and  recently  established,  confessedly,  in  every  respect,  and  particu- 
larly as  to  accommodation  and  speed,  superior  to  the  Albany  boats. 
Chancellor  Livingston  was  himself  on  board ;  and  I  recollect  that  Mr. 
Jacob  Barker  and  his  wife,  and  I  think  Mr.  Walter  Bowne,  now  a  sen- 
ator from  the  southern  district,  were  also  among  the  passengers,  who 
in  the  whole  were  eighteen.  We  started  a  few  minutes  before  one  of 
the  Albany  boats.  Something  happened  to  our  machinery  before  we  had 
got  far  from  the  wharf,  which  stopped  us,  and  enabled  the  Albany  boat 
to  go  ahead.  She  must  have  had  upwards  of  an  hundred  passengers  on 
board:  her  decks  were  absolutely  crowded.  I  wish  you  could  at  that 
moment  have  seen  the  Chancellor,  and  heard  his  reflections." 

Livingston's  attempt  to  enrich  the  country  had  taken 
a  turn  he  and  his  colleague  had  not  anticipated.  A  com- 
promise was  at  last  effected  with  the  Albany  line,  and 
in  that  way  the  dispute  was  kept  out  of  the  national  courts. 
The  opposition  boats  continued  to  run. 

During  1811  and  1812  Fulton  built  two  vessels  for 
Hudson  River  traffic1  and  a  ferry  boat  to  ply  between 
New  York  and  Jersey  City.  The  demand  for  steam  trans- 
portation continued  to  grow  in  other  states,  but  though 
Fulton  at  first  had  no  legal  monopoly  except  in  New 
York,  and  did  not  show  inclination  to  prosecute  under  his 
United  States  patent,  a  fear  of  long  and  costly  litigation 
served  to  retard  the  general  introduction  of  vehicles  so 
widely  desired. 

The  adoption  of  steam  power  in  transportation  had 

1  They  were  the  "Paragon,"  331  feet  long,  and  the  "Firefly,"  of  118  feet  length. 

383 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

created  new  and  unforeseen  questions  of  relationship  be- 
tween individual  states,  as  well  as  between  them  and  the 
national  government.  The  earlier  giving  of  privileges  to 
Fitch  by  various  commonwealths  was  the  basis  of  a  widely 
entertained  belief  that  persons  or  companies  could  prop- 
erly hold  franchises  allowing  them  the  exclusive  right  to 
supply  steam-power  transportation  in  states  bestowing 
grants  of  that  nature.  Even  the  courts  in  many  instances 
held  a  like  view,  though  the  rivers  on  which  the  new 
method  of  travel  was  to  be  used  traversed  more  than  one 
state  or  served  as  boundary  lines.  The  whole  matter  was 
a  complicated  one,  for  it  concerned  not  only  the  ques- 
tion of  properly  protecting  inventive  genius  to  what- 
ever extent  such  protection  was  deserved,  but  also 
involved  the  harmony  of  Federal  and  state  jurisdic- 


117. — River  types  of  1825.  From  a  drawing  made  by  Captain  Basil  Hall  of 
the  British  Navy  during  his  trip  through  the  United  States.  The  man  at 
the  left  is  a  steamboat  pilot.  Captain  Hall  describes  the  others  as  '"back- 
woodsmen," but  from  their  dress  and  demeanor  it  seems  more  probable 
they  were  men  of  some  small  town  or  settlement,  belonging  to  that  class 
which  turned  its  hands,  as  need  arose,  to  any  one  of  a  dozen  tasks  on  land 
or  water. 

384 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

tions,  and  was  seen  to  affect  the  country  in  a  way 
not  approached  by  any  other  phase  of  its  internal 
affairs.  Yet  the  chief  men  of  the  time  displayed  an  in- 
ability to  foresee  in  any  appreciable  degree  the  future 
growth  of  the  nation  or  the  inevitable  elimination  of 
state  lines  in  all  matters  involving  the  social  and  industrial 
life  of  the  republic.  If  there  was  any  premonition  of 
what  the  coming  years  held  in  store  it  lay  in  the  minds 
of  the  multitude.  The  attitude  of  the  people  indi- 
cates that  their  perception  was  more  trustworthy  than  the 
vision  of  their  leaders.  The  darkness  in  which  the  chief- 
tains groped  can  well  be  shown  by  quoting  from  the 
opinions  of  eminent  judges  who  decided,  in  New  York, 
that  a  state  had  power  to  halt  or  otherwise  regulate  all 
traffic  at  a  state  boundary  line,  no  matter  whence  the 
traveller  came  or  where  he  was  going.  In  the  case  de- 
cided in  Fulton's  favor1  respecting  the  right  of  New  York 
to  enjoin  the  operation  of  steamboats  not  licensed  by  him, 
Judge  Yates  said: 

"It  never  could  have  been  intended2  that  the  navigable  waters  with- 
in the  territory  of  the  respective  states  should  not  be  subject  to  their 
municipal  regulations." 

Chief  Justice  Kent  declared  in  his  opinion3  that: 

"Hudson  river  is  the  property  of  the  people  of  this,  state,  and  the 
legislature  have  the  same  jurisdiction  over  it  that  they  have  over  the 
land,  or  over  any  of  our  public  highways,  or  over  the  waters  of  any  of 
our  rivers  or  lakes.  They  may,  in  their  sound  discretion,  regulate  and 
control,  enlarge  or  abridge  the  use  of  its  waters,  and  they  are  in  the 
habitual  exercise  of  that  sovereign  right  .... 

"It  is  said  that  a  steamboat  may  become  the  vehicle  of  foreign  com- 
merce; and,  it  is  asked,  can  then  the  entry  of  them  into  this  state,  or  the 
use  of  them  within  it,  be  prohibited?  I  answer,  yes,  equally  as  we  may 
prohibit  the  entry  or  use  of  slaves,  or  of  pernicious  animals,  or  an  obscene 

1  Livingston  against  Van   Ingen. 

2  By   the   1'ederal   Constitution. 

3  Kent  afterward  became  Chancellor.     The  opinion  of  the  court  was  unanimous. 

385 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

book,   or   infectious   goods,   or   anything  else   that  the   legislature  shall 
deem  noxious  or  inconvenient." 

Against  such  thunder-claps  from  the  Sinai  of  the 
law  did  steam  propelled  vehicles  struggle  during  the  first 
years  of  public  effort  to  procure  their  general  introduc- 
tion in  America.  The  legal  obstacles  to  the  extensive 
use  of  steam  transportation  after  the  people  had  accepted 
it  in  principle  were  all  traceable  to  the  initial  attitude 
of  Congress  in  not  securing  the  original  invention  from 
Fitch  for  free  use,  together  with  the  theory  of  the  various 
commonwealths  that  they  could  grant  to  him  exclusive 
rights  for  the  employment  on  navigable  streams  within 
their  supposed  jurisdiction,  of  a  system  of  conveyance 
so  profoundly  affecting  the  whole  country — a  method  of 
transportation  destined  to  be  the  decisive  instrument  by 
which  the  continent  should  at  last  be  conquered  and  all 
the  states  welded  into  one  social  unit. 

Livingston  and  Fulton  continued  their  effort  to  gain 
monopolistic  control  of  steam  propulsion  throughout  the 
United  States,  and  in  addition  to  building  more  boats  and 
fighting  competition  in  New  York,  they  extended  their 
activities  in  three  other  directions.  They  entered  into 
negotiations  with  Louisiana  in  order  to  secure  an  exclu- 
sive foothold  on  the  lower  Mississippi,  enlisted  the  services 
of  Roosevelt1  and  sent  him  to  the  Ohio  to  study  the  adapta- 
bility of  their  enterprise  to  that  stream,  and  began  an 
advertising  campaign  in  various  cities  offering  to  license 
steam  craft  on  a  percentage  basis  in  localities  to  which 
they  could  not  give  personal  attention.  Their  advertise- 
ment was  published  in  numerous  numbers  of  different 
newspapers,2  and  read: 

1  The  Nicholas  J.  Roosevelt  who  had  urged  on  Livingston   the  use  of  paddle-wheels  in 
1798,  and  whose  assistant,  Stoudinger,  had  become  Fulton's  chief  aid  in  construction  work. 

2  In  New  York  it  appeared  in  the   "Evening  Post,"  and  in  Philadelphia  it  was  con- 
tained in   the   "General  Advertiser." 

386 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

STEAM   BOATS 

The  undersigned  patentees,  anxious  to  extend  the  advantages  of 
steam  boats  to  every  part  of  the  United  States  where  they  may  be  useful 
and  to  prevent  such  of  their  fellow  citizens  as  are  not  sufficiently  ac- 
quainted with  mechanics  from  being  imposed  upon  by  pretenders,  who 
are  ignorant  of  the  principles,  offer  license  to  any  respectable  individual 
or  company,  who  may  be  inclined  to  build  Steam  Boats,  on  any  of  the 
waters  of  the  United  States,  the  waters  of  New  York,  Mississippi  and 
those  already  engaged,  excepted — on  the  following  conditions: 


118. — The   Ohio  River   steamer   Flora,  which   was  built   at  Pittsburgh   in    1835. 

Her  fate  is  unrecorded  in  Hall's  list.      The  resemblance  of  the  Flora  to 

the  Belvidere  is  noticeable.     A  contemporary  pencil  sketch. 


The  person  or  company  taking  a  license  and  giving  security  for  the 
performance  of  their  contract,  shall  out  of  the  gross  receipts  of  each 
year,  pay  all  the  expenses  which  the  Boat  may  incur  within  the  year ; 
and  of  the  net  profits,  should  there  be  sufficient,  he  or  they  shall  take 
10  percent  for  [of]  the  capital  expended  on  the  establishment. — But  all 
profits  exceeding  10  percent  shall  be  equally  divided,  one  half  to  the 
person  or  persons  who  built  the  boat,  and  one  half  to  the  undersigned 
patentees.  Thus  the  year  in  which  the  boat  clears  12  percent  the  owners 

387 


will  receive  11  and  the  patentees  1  percent  and  in  like  proportion  for 
any  greater  sum.  In  the  year  that  the  boat  clears  9^4,  the  patentees  will 
have  no  dividend. 

On  these  encouraging  conditions,  if  any  patriotic  individuals  wish 
to  improve  a  navigation  by  establishing  a  Steam  Boat,  where  the  profits 
may  not  exceed  6  percent  on  the  usual  interest,  such  a  laudable  enter- 
prise will  not  be  checked  by  any  claim  of  the  patentees,  the  adventurers 
taking  all  profits  until  it  exceeds  10  percent.  In  all  cases,  when  required, 
the  undersigned  patentees  will,  whether  for  Passage,  Merchandise  or 
Ferry  Boats,  and  at  the  expense  of  the  adventurers,  furnish  correct  draw- 
ings and  rules  for  securing  the  most  complete  success  to  which  this  new 
art  has  arrived,  and  also  have  the  engine  and  machinery  made  at  their 
own  works  at  New- York,  and  send  their  experienced  engineers  to  put 
the  work  together  and  the  boat  in  motion. 

As  success  surpassing  the  most  sanguine  hope  has  attended  the  boats 
they  have  built,  not  one  of  them  falling  short,  and  several  exceeding  the 
calculations  made  on  their  speed  and  accommodations — as  five  years  of 
practical  experience  may  be  considered  to  have  given  the  undersigned 
more  correct  information  on  Steam  Boats,  than  any  other  individuals 
possess — it  is  submitted  to  those  who  may  wish  to  engage  in  such  expen- 
sive operations,  whether  it  will  not  be  more  prudent  to  proceed  on 
grounds  that  are  professed  to  be  safe,  than  to  travel  an  unbeaten  path, 
or  risque  the  penalties  of  the  patent  law,  by  intruding  on  the  rights  of 

the  Inventors. 

ROBERT  R.  LIVINGSTON. 

ROBERT  FULTON. 

Little  response  was  aroused  by  this  offer.  A  few  of 
the  first  steamboats  of  the  East  elsewhere  than  in  New 
York  were  operated  under  license  from  Fulton,  but 
public  feeling  against  a  monopoly  of  the  sort  claimed, 
together  with  a  conviction  that  it  could  not  long  be  up- 
held, and  an  aversion  to  the  investment  of  money  under 
the  terms  proposed,  all  served  to  defeat  the  aims  of 
Livingston  and  his  associate. 

The  effort  to  obtain  exclusive  privileges  on  the  lower 
Mississippi  was  for  a  time  more  successful.  Governor 
Claiborne  of  Louisiana  met  Fulton  and  Livingston  in 
New  York  City  in  the  autumn  of  1810,  and  discussed 
with  them  the  project  of  introducing  steamboats  on  the 
Father  of  Waters.  A  summary  of  the  negotiations  there 

388 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

conducted  was  afterward  made  by  Claiborne  in  a  letter 
in  which  the  governor  said:1 

"They  entertained  no  doubt  as  to  the  ultimate  success  of  the  experi- 
ment; but  spoke  of  the  great  expenditure  and  heavy  advances  with  which 
it  would  be  attended.  These  they  were  unwilling  to  encounter,  unless 
previously  assured  of  the  protection  of  the  legislature  of  the  territory 
of  Orleans.  I  enquired  as  to  the  nature  of  the  protection  desired,  and 
was  informed — 'An  exclusive  privilege  to  navigate  the  waters  of  the 
Mississippi,  passing  through  the  territory  of  Orleans,  with  boats  pro- 
pelled by  steam,  was  the  only  condition  on  which  they  would  embark 
in  this  enterprise.'  ' 

As  a  result  of  the  discussion  between  the  steamboat 
builders  and  the  southern  executive,  a  bill  entitled,  "An 
act  granting  to  Robert  R.  Livingston  and  Robert  Fulton 
the  sole  privilege  of  using  steam-boats  for  a  limited  time 
in  the  territory,"  was  passed  on  April  19th,  1811.  Fulton 
had  agreed  that  if  the  Mississippi  monopoly  was  given 
to  him  he  would  send  one  or  more  boats  to  Louisiana  as 
speedily  as  possible,  and  he  proceeded  to  carry  out  his 
part  of  the  bargain  with  expedition.  As  soon  as  news 
came  that  the  legislature  had  passed  the  law  demanded, 
he  went  with  some  workmen  to  Pittsburgh,  and  there,2 
in  1811,  was  built  the  New  Orleans,  the  first  steam  craft 
to  navigate  any  stream  of  the  interior.  The  New  Orleans 
was  a  small  boat  of  a  hundred  tons  burden,  with  a  stern 
paddle-wheel  and  two  masts.3  She  set  out  from  Pitts- 
burgh on  her  long  voyage  toward  the  South  in  October, 
and  reached  the  city  whose  name  she  bore  in  the  January 
following. 

Not  all  the  three  months'  interval  was  consumed  by 

1  Written  to  J.  Lynch.  Esq.,  of  New  Orleans,   on   Jan.   25,   1817.     Printed  in    full   in 
Colden's  "Vindication  of  the  Steamboat  Right;"  Albany,  1818,  pp.   168-70. 

2  During   1809,   in   behalf   of   Fulton   and   Livingston,   Roosevelt   had   personally   visited 
snd   studied   the    Ohio    and   Mississippi    Rivers   to    discover    whether   steam    nav.gation    wa> 
practicable   on   them. 

The  "New  Orleans"  was  built  and  launched  under  the  direction  of  Roosevelt. 

s  Fulton  still  believed  that  the  use  of  sails  for  auxiliary  power  would  be  necessary. 

389 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


119. — A  small,  stern-wheel,  flat-bottomed  boat  of  the  Ohio  River.  It  was  this 
type  of  steam  craft  (hat  pushed  its  way  up  the  Muskingum,  Hocking,  Scioto, 
Licking,  Miami,  White,  Wabash,  and  other  Ohio  tributaries  before  the  days 
of  the  railroads.  During  the  third  decade  such  boats  ascended  the  Wabash 
River  to  the  town  of  Lafayette,  in  northern  Indiana.  Owing  to  the  long 
disuse  of  those  and  other  streams,  some  of  them  have  come  to  be  considered 
non-navigable,  and  their  natural  beds  have  been  in  part  usurped  by  bridges 
and  other  building  encroachments. 

the  voyage.  The  only  persons  on  board  were  Roosevelt, 
his  wife  and  family,  a  pilot,  six  members  of  the  crew  and 
some  servants.  Remarkably  good  speed  was  made  from 
the  starting-point  to  Louisville,  and  the  progress  of  the 
boat  down  the  Ohio  to  that  city  became  a  panorama  of 
amazement  and  excitement  over  six  hundred  miles  long. 
When  she  passed  towns  or  settled  communities  all  the 
people  ran  to  the  banks  of  the  river  and  gazed  awestruck 
at  the  spectacle,  just  as  the  Connecticut  villagers  had 
tumbled  over  one  another  to  behold  Governor  Trum- 
bull's  chaise  during  the  Revolution.  They  had  heard  of 
steamboats,  knew  such  things  existed  in  the  East,  and 

390 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

had  been  told  that  one  of  them  was  being  built  at  Pitts- 
burgh. Yet  no  attempted  mental  picture  of  the  much- 
discussed  contrivance  could  approach,  in  its  overwhelm- 
ing significance,  a  sight  of  the  actuality.  Imagination  and 
anticipation  had  aroused  the  interest  of  the  people,  but 
the  on-rushing  truth  brought  a  sense  of  stupefaction. 
Long  after  the  smoke  from  her  iron  chimney  had  van- 
ished in  the  air,  and  for  hours  after  the  clanking  of  her 
engine  had  become  a  whisper  in  the  ears  of  memory,  the 
people  stood  at  the  edge  of  the  waters  they  had  fought 
so  long,  looking  blanking  down  the  river.  Something 
had  passed  them,  and  yesterday  was  very  far  away. 

Louisville  was  reached  late  at  night,  after  all  the  town 
was  wrapped  in  peaceful  slumber.  On  approaching  the 
shore  the  accumulated  steam  in  the  boilers  was  permitted 
to  escape  through  the  exhaust  pipe.  Never  before  had 
the  resultant  roar  of  that  operation  been  heard  on  the 
Ohio,  and  as  the  loud  reverberating  blast  rolled  through 
the  little  city,  sleep  fled  from  its  habitations  and  the 
population  with  one  accord  sat  upright  in  the  darkness, 
wondering  why  the  crack  of  doom  was  so  long  drawn 
out  and  how  soon  the  angel  Gabriel  would  follow  it  in 
person.  Alarm  was  general,  but  as  the  midnight  cry 
of  a  new  power  died  away  to  a  low  muttering,  and  then 
ceased  altogether,  assurance  came  again  and  news  regard- 
ing the  real  cause  of  the  disturbance  soon  spread  through 
the  community. 

Shallow  water  at  the  rapids  detained  the  steamboat 
for  three  weeks,  during  which  time  she  made  several  trips 
to  Cincinnati  and  return,  but  during  the  last  days  of 
November  the  southward  voyage  was  again  begun. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

EARLY  STEAMBOATS  OF  THE  WEST  —  SHREVE  AND  HIS 
CRAFT  —  THE  NEW  YORK  COMPANY  TRIES  TO  STOP 
IT  FROM  RUNNING  —  SHREVE  WINS  AND  THE  DEVEL- 
OPMENT OF  THE  WEST  PROCEEDS  —  CAUSES  OF  DELAY 
IN  THE  EAST  —  FULTON'S  OFFER  TO  THORNTON - 
NICHOLAS  ROOSEVELT  MAKES  A  FEW  REMARKS  — 
THE  WALK-IN-THE- WATER  —  WAR  BETWEEN  SAIL- 
ING PACKETS  AND  STEAM  CRAFT  —  NEW  ENGLAND 
STATES  TRY  TO  KEEP  NEW  YORK  STEAMBOATS  OUT  OF 
THEIR  WATERS  —  MONOPOLY  FINALLY  OVERTHROWN 
-THE  USE  OF  STEAM  IN  TRANSPORTATION  MADE 
FREE  TO  ALL  AFTER  NEARLY  FORTY  YEARS  OF  SPECIAL 
PRIVILEGE 

THE  arrival  of  the  vessel  at  New  Orleans  was  an 
occasion  for  a  popular  demonstration,  and  the  hoat 
was  at  once  employed  in  regular  trips  between  the  Louisi- 
ana metropolis  and  Natchez  in  Mississippi.  But  so  abrupt 
and  uncanny  was  the  contrast  between  the  steamboat  and 
those  craft  she  was  intended  to  supplant  that  the  public 
held  aloof  from  her  in  the  bestowal  of  their  patronage  un- 
til several  trips  had  been  made.  She  seemed  too  much  of 
a  miracle,  at  first,  and  many  travellers  and  merchants 
preferred  to  use  the  barges  and  flatboats  with  which  they 
were  familiar  until  the  new  system  of  transportation  had 
somewhat  demonstrated  its  reliability  in  practise.  The 
New  Orleans,  like  all  other  early  steamboats,  was  a  flimsy 

392 


fabric  laden  with  danger  both  from  explosion  and  fire, 
and  the  careful  business  men  of  the  South,  though  recog- 
nizing the  value  of  steam  propulsion,  were  not  blind  to 
those  defects  in  its  application  which  were  later  to  result 
in  catastrophes  that  appalled  the  country.  The  average 
up-stream  speed  of  the  New  Orleans  was  about  three  miles 
an  hour.  She  continued  in  service  until  wrecked  by  a 
snag  in  1814. 

The  second  steamboat  in  western  waters  was  the  Comet, 
built  on  the  Ohio  at  Brownsville,  Pennsylvania,  in  1813, 
by  Daniel  French,  who  had  obtained  a  patent  in  1809. 
The  Comet  went  to  Louisville  in  1813  and  descended  to 
New  Orleans  during  the  following  year.  After  two  voy- 
ages to  Natchez  she  was  dismantled  and  her  engine  was 
set  up  in  a  cotton  factory. 

The  Vesuvius,  built  at  Pittsburgh  by  Fulton's  work- 
men in  1814,  for  his  Louisiana  company,  was  the  third 
western  boat,  and  she  reached  New  Orleans  in  the  early 
summer  of  that  year.  On  her  first  north-bound  voyage  she 
ran  on  a  sand-bar,  where  she  reposed  from  July  until 
December,  and  then  returned  to  New  Orleans.  The  Vesu- 
vius plied  intermittently  between  the  southern  city  and 
Natchez  in  1815  and  1816,  was  burned,  raised,  refitted, 
and  finally  fell  to  pieces  in  1819,  after  a  long  career  typ- 
ical of  the  most  venerable  and  fortunate  boats  of  the  time. 

Number  four  of  the  early  western  steam  craft  was  the 
Enterprise,  built  by  French  at  Brownsville  in  1814. 
After  two  trips  to  Louisville  and  return  she  proceeded  to 
New  Orleans  and  in  the  spring  of  1815  went  back  to 
Louisville  again,  being  the  first  boat  to  travel  up-stream 
between  the  two  cities  by  means  of  steam  power.  The 
trip  was  accomplished  in  twenty-five  days,  but  was  not 
accepted  by  the  people  of  the  interior  as  a  final  and  de- 

393 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


120. — First-class  steamboat  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  River  trade  in  1838. 
In  boats  of  this  sort  the  trip  from  Cincinnati  to  New  Orleans  required 
about  seven  or  eight  days.  From  a  drawing  by  the  Scotch  engineer  David 
Stevenson,  in  1837. 

cisive  proof  that  steam  craft  were  dependable  for  use 
against  the  river  currents.  She  had  ascended  the  Missis- 
sippi and  Ohio  during  a  flood,  and  avoided  the  opposing 
flow  by  travelling  most  of  the  way  over  inundated  country 
covered  by  slack  water.  So  the  people  still  refused  to 
give  an  unqualified  verdict  that  the  Mississippi  had  been 
conquered. 

Such  was  the  state  of  public  opinion  when  Henry 
Shreve  built  the  double-deck  steamboat  Washington  at 
Wheeling,  Virginia,  in  1816,  equipped  his  boat  with 
high-pressure  engines  constructed  by  French,  and  em- 
bodied numerous  technical  improvements  in  the  vessel 
and  her  machinery.  The  Washington  was  taken  to  New 
Orleans  in  the  fall  of  1816,  and  excited  the  admiration  of 
the  Louisiana  city.  While  lying  there  the  boat  was  in- 
spected by  Edward  Livingston,  brother  and  business 
representative  of  the  Chancellor,  who  said  to  Shreve :  "You 

394 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

deserve  well  of  your  country,  young  man,  but  we  shall  be 
compelled  to  beat  you  if  we  can."1  On  March  12,  1817, 
the  Washington  left  Louisville  for  New  Orleans  on  her 
second  voyage,  and  accomplished  the  round  trip  in  forty- 
one  days.  About  twelve  days  were  consumed  in  descend- 
ing the  rivers,  and  twenty-five  in  returning  against  the 
normal  currents  of  the  streams.  From  this  upward  pas- 
sage may  be  dated  the  commencement  of  general  steam 
navigation  in  the  Mississippi  valley.  It  dispelled  the  last 
doubt  of  the  people  that  steam  was  the  master  of  the 
mighty  river,  and  Shreve  was  hailed  as  a  hero.  The  pop- 
ulation of  the  Mississippi  valley  was  as  excited  over  his 
accomplishment  as  it  had  been  over  Jackson's  victory  at 
New  Orleans.  Louisville  greeted  him  on  his  return  with 
a  reception  and  a  public  dinner,  and  he  made  a  speech  in 
which  he  boldly  predicted  that  the  time  would  come  when 
people  could  travel  from  New  Orleans  to  Louisville  in 
ten  days.  His  hearers  thought  he  was  a  trifle  optimistic, 
but  applauded  him  just  the  same. 

No  sooner  had  news  of  the  Washington's  performance 
spread  through  the  Ohio  valley  than  numerous  steamboats 
were  begun,  but  their  appearance  in  large  numbers  was 
halted  for  two  years  more  by  the  fear  of  legal  proceedings 
against  them.  Robert  Fulton  had  died  in  1815,  but  his 
company  was  still  active  in  its  efforts  to  establish  a  monop- 
oly in  steam  transportation,  and  did  not  confine  itself  to 
verbal  warnings.  Edward  Livingston's  threat  was  carried 
into  effect.  On  the  return  of  Shreve  and  his  craft  to  New 
Orleans  the  Washington  was  seized  by  the  sheriff  at  the 
instigation  of  the  New  York  company  and  an  action  to 
prevent  its  further  operation  was  begun  in  the  courts  of 

1  Meaning  that   the   Livingston-Fulton   company   would   try   by   legal   means   to   prevent 
Shreve  from  running  his  boat. 

395 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Louisiana.  The  decision  was  in  favor  of  Shreve,  and  the 
southern  monopoly  asserted  by  the  Livingston-Fulton 
association  was  declared  to  be  unconstitutional  and  void. 
In  1819  the  claims  of  the  New  York  men  were  abandoned 
as  far  as  western  waters  were  concerned,  and  steamboat 
building  on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  was  resumed,  with- 
out fear,  by  all  who  desired  to  engage  in  the  enterprise. 
From  that  time  the  development  of  the  interior  continued 
with  increased  momentum.  Cincinnati's  first  steamboat, 
the  original  General  Pike,  was  put  into  commission  in 
the  year  last  named  and  marked  the  appearance  of  the 
pioneer  steam  transportation  company  of  the  West.1  She 
conveyed  her  passengers  to  Louisville  in  thirty-one  hours.2 
For  a  dozen  years  or  more  after  1807  the  use  of  steam 
transportation  in  the  East  spread  even  less  rapidly  than 
in  the  West.  Two  causes  that  contributed  to  delay  in 
adopting  the  new  vehicles — fear  of  lawsuits  and  dissatis- 
faction with  the  percentage  terms  offered  by  Livingston 
and  Fulton — have  been  mentioned.  Still  other  powerful 
agencies  operating  in  the  same  way  were  the  opposition  of 
established  travel  systems  such  as  stage-coach  lines  and 
sailing  packets,  the  jealousies  of  the  different  states,  and 
the  actual  taxation  of  travellers  on  steamboats.  Yet  none 
of  these  things,  nor  all  of  them  put  together,  could  prevail 
against  the  manifest  advantages  that  lay  in  the  use  of  steam 
power.  Various  small  boats  were  now  and  then  built  in 

1  The  United  States  Mail  Line  between  Cincinnati,  Louisville  and  St.  Louis. 

2  The  increase  in  the  speed  of  travel  throughout  the  interior  between  the  days  of  the 
flatboat  and  the  general  introduction  of  railroads  in  that  part  of  the  country  can  be  shown 
in  a  broad  way  by  a  table  giving  the  time  consumed   in  a  steamboat  trip   from  Louisville 
to   New   Orleans  at  various  dates  between   1815  and  1853.      Such  figures   follow: 


Year 
1815 

Steamboat 
Enterprise 

Days 
25 

Hrs. 
2 

Min. 
40 

Year 
1840 

Steamboat          I 
Shippen    

)ays 
5 

Hrs. 

14 

Min 

00 

1817 

Washington 

25 

0 

00 

1844 

Sultana     

5 

12 

00 

1817 

Shelby    

20 

4 

20 

1849 

5 

8 

00 

1819 

18 

10 

00 

1851 

Belle    Key 

4 

23 

oo 

1828 
1834 

Tecumseh    .  . 
Tuscarora   .  . 

8 

7 

4 
16 

00 
00 

1852 
1852 

Reindeer    

4 
4 

20 

18 

45 

00 

1837 
1837 

Gen.    Brown. 

6 
6 

22 
15 

00 
00 

1853 
1853 

Shotwell     

4 
4 

10 
9 

20 

30 

396 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


« 


121. — The  Jacob  Strader,  built  in  1854  for  service  between  Cincinnati  and 
Louisville,  was  the  finest  boat  yet  seen  on  the  Ohio.  She  cost  $200,000, 
and  developed  a  speed  of  18  miles  an  hour.  The  words  "low  pressure"  on 
the  paddle-box  were  to  reassure  the  public  against  the  probability  of  ex- 
plosions such  as  were  then  frequent  on  boats  using  high  pressure  boilers. 

different  localities,  and  they  prospered  when  not  opposed 
by  narrow-sightedness  or  legal  obstacles  which  they  could 
not  combat. 

Philadelphia's  first  boat  to  be  run  for  public  patronage 
since  Fitch's  packet  of  1788-1790  was  the  Phoenix,  whose 
building  by  John  Stevens,  in  1807,  has  been  related.  For 
a  time  she  was  operated  between  New  Jersey  towns  and 
New  York  City,  but  Fulton's  opposition  at  last  shut  her 
out  of  New  York  state  waters,  and  she  was  taken  to  Phila- 
delphia, thus  performing  the  first  ocean  voyage  under- 
taken by  a  steam  craft.  After  reaching  the  Delaware 
River,  in  1809,  the  Phoenix  ran  between  Philadelphia  and 
Bordentown,  carrying  passengers  who  were  moving  to 
and  fro  across  New  Jersey  from  that  town  by  stage-coach. 
She  had  thirty-seven  sleeping  berths.  Warning  of  her  im- 
pending departure  on  a  trip  was  given  by  the  captain,  who 
stuck  to  the  custom  of  the  early  keel-boats  and  blew  on  a 
long  tin  horn.  During  the  next  ten  or  twelve  years  several 

397 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

other  boats  were  built  at  Philadelphia1  to  meet  the  needs 
of  the  rapidly  growing  travel  between  New  York  and  that 
city.  Each  carried  her  passengers  up  the  Delaware  to  the 
terminus  of  the  stage-coach  line  with  which  she  had  a 
traffic  arrangement.  There  were  a  number  of  such  stage 
companies  operating  vehicles  across  New  Jersey  by  that 
time,  and  so  energetically  did  they  seek  patrons  that  a 
rate  war  occasionally  broke  out,  and  the  price  of  a  through 
ticket  to  New  York  dropped  to  a  dollar. 

Baltimore  entered  on  the  era  of  steam  travel  in  1813, 
when  the  little  steamboat  Eagle  went  from  New  York  to 
operate  in  the  neighborhood,  and  three  years  later  another 
boat,  the  New  Jersey,  arrived  at  the  Maryland  city. 

All  five  of  Fulton's  early  boats  on  the  Hudson  and  Jer- 
sey waters2  remained  rather  slow  of  motion  and  somewhat 
awkward  in  operation.  He  recognized  the  desirability  of 
obtaining  greater  speed  if  possible,  and  in  1811  wrote  a 
letter  on  the  subject  to  Dr.  William  Thornton,3  in  which 
he  said: 

"I  shall  be  happy  to  have  some  conversation  with  you  on  your  steam- 
boat inventions  and  experience.  Although  I  do  not  see  by  what  means 
a  boat  containing  one  hundred  tons  of  merchandise  can  be  driven  six 
miles  an  hour  in  still  water,  yet  when  you  assert  perfect  confidence  in 
such  success,  there  may  be  something  more  in  your  combinations  than  I 
am  aware  of.  ...  If  you  succeed  to  run  six  miles  an  hour  in  still  water 
with  one  hundred  tons  of  merchandise,  I  will  contract  to  reimburse  the 
cost  of  the  boat,  and  to  give  you  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars 
for  your  patent;  or,  if  you  convince  me  of  the  success  by  drawings  or 
demonstrations,  I  will  join  you  in  the  expense  and  profits."4 

By  the  year  1816  there  were  but  eight  boats  on  the  Hud- 
son, and  the  fare  from  New  York  to  Albany  was  seven 

1  Some   few   of  them  were   the   "Philadelphia,"   the   "Pennsylvania"   and  the   "Aetna." 
The  "Aetna"  blew  up  in  New  York  harbor  in   1824,  with  loss  of  life. 

2  The    "Clermonr'    (1807);    "Raritan"    (1807);    "Car    of   Neptune"    (1808);    "Paragon" 
(1811);  and   "Firefly"   (1812). 

3  Fitch's  old  business  associate. 

4  Preble's  "History,"  p.  64.     Thornton,  in  speaking  of  this  matter  says:     "I  agreed  to 
his  proposal  at  once,  but   he  declined  to  write  the  terms."     Thornton's   "Short   Account," 
Albany,  1818,  p.  9. 

398 


dollars.  Passengers  for  way  stations  paid  at  the  rate  of 
about  five  cents  a  mile,  but  no  ticket  was  sold  for  less  than 
a  dollar,  no  matter  how  short  the  distance  its  purchaser 
intended  to  go.  Complicated  legal  controversies  were 
still  raging  in  Connecticut,  New  York  and  New  Jersey 
over  the  subject  of  steamboat  patents,  and  in  the  same  year 


122. — A  view  of  the  river  front  at  Cincinnati  during  the  period  in  which  steam- 
boat travel  and  traffic  reached  the  height  of  their  importance.  Cincinnati 
was  then  the  principal  city  of  the  interior,  and,  with  Louisville  and  Pitts- 
burgh, had  been  most  affected  by  the  adoption  and  spread  of  steam  trans- 
portation. Along  the  levee  at  each  city  there  constantly  lay  an  unbroken 
line  of  steamboats  about  a  mile  in  length. 

of  1816  Nicholas  Roosevelt  came  forward  with  a  claim  to 
the  invention  of  paddle-wheels,  which  he  had  proposed  to 
Livingston.  He  had  taken  out  a  patent  in  1814,  and  now 
published  in  various  newspapers  the  following  advertise- 

STEAMBOAT  NOTICE 

"All  persons  are  hereby  informed  that  I  claim  the  right  of  Inventor 
of  Vertical  Wheels,  as  now  generally  used  for  Steam  Boats  throughout 
the  United  States,  having  been  first  used,  after  my  invention,  in  the 
North  River  Steam  Boat,  by  Messrs.  Livingston  and  Fulton. 

"I  have  obtained  a  patent  in  due  form  of  law,  for  my  invention, 
which  is  dated  the  first  day  of  Dec.,  1814. 

399 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"No  other  person  in  the  United  States  has  any  Patent,  but  myself, 
for  the  invention  of  Vertical  Wheels.  Having  obtained  a  legal  title  to 
the  sole  use  of  steamboats  with  such  wheels,  I  hereby  forewarn  all  per- 
sons from  using  them  hereafter  without  license  from  me.  The  patent 
and  evidence  of  my  right  are  in  the  hands  of  Wm.  Griffith,  Esq.,  of  the 
City  of  Burlington,  my  Counsel-at-Law. 

"On  this  subject,  so  very  important  to  me  (being  the  only  real  and 
efficient  invention  since  Fitch's  boat),  I  do  not  by  this  notice  challenge 
controversy,  but  am  prepared  to  meet  it  in  any  form.  My  object  is  to 
make  known,  that  I  am  the  Inventor,  and  have  the  Patent  right.  Indi- 
viduals or  companies  who  use  such  wheels  without  my  license  after  this, 
will  be  prosecuted  under  the  Law  of  Congress,  for  damages  amounting 
to  the  profits  of  the  boat.  Licenses  will  be  sold  under  me  at  moderate 
rates,  and  warranted. 

"NICHOLAS  J.  ROOSEVELT. 
"BURLINGTON,  N.  J.,  4th  March,  1816."1 

After  this  public  notice  by  Roosevelt,  Fulton  never 
urged  his  claim,  but  from  that  moment  abandoned  it.2 
It  seems  a  justifiable  inference,  in  view  of  the  published 
statements  made  by  Roosevelt  and  his  manner  of  wording 
the  advertisement,  that  there  had  been  some  sort  of  a  fall- 
ing out  between  him  and  the  Livingston-Fulton  organiza- 
tion during  the  time  that  had  intervened  since  his  activity 
in  building  boats  at  Pittsburgh  for  the  company  in  1811. 
At  any  rate  Roosevelt's  sudden  appearance  in  the  field  as 
still  another  from  whom  permission  must  be  obtained 
before  steamboats  could  be  built  confused  the  public, 
instilled  an  additional  fear  into  the  minds  of  possible 
investors  and  thereby  served  further  to  retard  the  intro- 
duction of  the  new  transportation  device. 

Of  the  ones  who  did  take  out  licenses  for  the  building 
of  steamboats  some  dealt  with  the  Livingston-Fulton  com- 
pany and  others  with  the  new  claimant.  Among  those 

1  For  a  full  account  of  the  relationship  between  Roosevelt's  patent  and  later  develop- 
ments  in    the   legal    fight   over   steamboats,    see   J.    H.    B.    Latrobe's   "Lost    Chapter    in    the 
History   of   the   Steamboat." 

2  Phraseology  of  Latrobe,  p.  8.     In  1826  the  facts  were  submitted  as  a  case-at-law,  to 
William  Wirt,  for  an  opinion,  and  Wirt  said:     "On  the  above  statement  I  am  of  opinion 
that  the  patent  to  Roosevelt  is  valid."     Latrobe's  "Lost  Chapter,"  pp.  7-8. 

400 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

who  paid  Roosevelt  for  the  privilege  of  operating  steam 
craft  were  Aaron  Ogden,  who  established  a  vessel  between 
Elizabethtown  and  New  York,  and  the  Shrewsbury  and 
Jersey  Stage  Company,  which  ran  a  boat  in  connection 
with  its  land  coaches.  After  Fulton's  death  the  company 
organized  by  Chancellor  Livingston  and  himself  gave  up 


124. — A   Mississippi   steam   packet   with   a   cargo   of  cotton.     In   case  of  boiler 

explosion,  collision,  or  other  accident,   the  cotton  bales  sometimes  served   as 

rafts    to    which    the    people    clung    until    they    drifted    ashore  or    were 
picked  up. 

the  effort  to  secure  half  the  profits  on  all  earnings  above 
ten  per  cent,  under  licenses  granted  by  it.  No  public  an- 
nouncement respecting  a  modification  of  operating  terms 
for  steamboats  appears  to  have  been  made,  but  such  details 
were  left  to  private  negotiation.  The  company  was  trying 
as  best  it  could  to  retain  the  semblance  of  monopoly  still 
remaining,  and  made  whatever  arrangement  was  possible 
in  each  case.  In  1821,  for  example,  it  entered  into  an 
agreement  with  several  men  living  near  Lake  George,  in 

402 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

New  York  state,  giving  to  them  the  exclusive  right  of 
steam  navigation  on  that  sheet  of  water,  and  exacting  noth- 
ing from  the  owners  of  the  boat  until  eighteen  per  cent,  of 
all  money  invested  had  been  taken  in.  After  that  amount 
had  been  cleared,  half  of  any  further  profit  was  to  go  to 
the  licensing  company.1 

Another  pioneer  steamboat  whose  origin  and  operation 
were  somewhat  related  to  the  Fulton  company  was  the 
W alk-in-the-W ater ,  first  steam  vessel  on  Lake  Erie.  She 
was  built  near  Buffalo  in  1818,  left  Buffalo  for  the  first 
time  on  August  23,  1818,  arrived  at  Cleveland  amid  much 
popular  excitement  on  the  25th,  and  reached  Detroit,  her 
destination,  on  the  28th.  During  her  progress  through 
Detroit  River  hundreds  of  Indians  lined  the  shores  of  the 
strait  and  cried  out  in  amazement.  They  had  been  told 
the  white  men  would  send  among  them  a  ship  drawn 
through  the  water  by  sturgeons,  and  there,  before  their 
eyes,  was  proof  of  the  incredible  tale.  Never  more  would 
they  presume  to  oppose  a  race  who  could  do  such  a  thing 
—who  could  harness  even  the  fish  of  the  sea  to  do  their 
bidding.  The  red  men  were  soon  disabused  of  their  first 
belief,  but  an  understanding  that  fire  and  machinery 
were  used  in  propelling  the  boat  produced  an  im- 
pression no  less  profound.  "We  are  children,"  they  said. 

The  builder  of  the  W  alk-in-the-W  ater~  had  paid  the 
Livingston-Fulton  company  a  sum  now  unknown  for  the 
privilege  of  operating  the  vessel,  and  all  four  men  who  at 
various  times  commanded  her  were  brought  from  previ- 
ous service  on  the  Hudson  River  boats  of  the  company. 
She  cost  about  $50,000,  had  two  masts,  and  paddle-wheels 

1  The  contract  here  summarized  was  contained  in  a  document  in  the  collection  of  Dr. 
Ronieyn   Beek,   of   Albany,  and   later  in  possession  of  Mrs.   Pierre  Van   Cortlandt.      It   was 
first  published  in  the  "Magazine  of  American  History,"  Vol.  xviii,  Xo.   1    (July,  1887). 

2  Dr.  J.   B.   Stewart  of  Js'ew  York  City.     For  a  full  history  of  the  boat,  see   "Proceed- 
ings of  the  Buffalo   Historical  Society"  for  1864;   the   "Detroit   Gazette"  of  1818-1821,  and 
the  "Michigan  Pioneer  Society  Collections,"  Vol.   18. 

403 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

sixteen  feet  in  diameter.  In  still  water  she  could  make 
nearly  eight  miles  an  hour,  but  owing  to  the  strength  of 
the  current  at  Buffalo  she  sometimes  had  to  be  hauled  by 
oxen  at  the  end  of  a  tow-line  for  a  considerable  distance, 
when  leaving  port,  before  trusting  to  her  own  machinery. 
As  many  as  a  hundred  and  fifty  passengers  were  at  times 
aboard  her.  She  continued  to  run  between  Buffalo,  Cleve- 
land, Sandusky,  Detroit,  and  Mackinac  until  October  of 
1821,  when  she  was  wrecked  in  a  gale  near  Buffalo.  Her 
usual  time  between  Buffalo  and  Detroit  was  three  days, 
and  the  cost  of  a  trip  between  those  two  cities  was  eighteen 
dollars.1 

In  New  England  a  number  of  unusual  conditions  and 
circumstances  marked  the  early  days  of  steam  travel.  The 
first  steamboat  of  Boston2  was  a  commercial  failure.  She 
was  built  in  1817  to  run  between  that  city  and  Salem,  and 
on  her  initial  trip — an  excursion — something  happened  to 
the  machinery  and  her  passengers  had  to  bs  sent  back  to 
their  homes  in  stage-coaches.  The  accident  was  a  severe 
blow  to  her  prestige,  and  the  stage-coach  lines  thereafter 
fought  her  by  a  campaign  designed  to  shake  public  faith 
in  the  new  travel  method.  As  a  consequence  the  boat  was 
not  patronized,  and  her  owners  decided  to  send  her  to 
Charleston,  South  Carolina.  On  the  trip  toward  that  city 
she  was  lost. 

During  the  same  year  of  1817  Rhode  Island  beheld 
the  first  steamboat  to  appear  in  that  part  of  the  world 
since  the  days  when  Elijah  Ormsbee  built  and  operated 
his  little  craft,  back  in  1792.  In  1817  the  Livingston- 
Fulton  company  sent  its  boat,  the  Firefly,  to  run  between 
Newport  and  Providence.  On  her  arrival  at  Pawtucket 

1  The  spread   of  steam  power  on   the   Great  Lakes  was   slow.      In   1821    there   was   one 
steamboat  on  those  waters;   in   1831,  eleven;   in   1836,   forty-five;   in   1847,  ninety-three. 

2  Called  the   "Massachusetts."     She   ran   about   8   miles  an   hour 

404 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

from  the  Hudson  she  was  greeted  by  the  usual  multitude 
eager  to  get  its  first  sight  of  the  new  conveyance,  and 
those  of  the  younger  generation  marvelled  as  befitted  the 
occasion.  But  among  the  throng  were  a  few  who  said: 
"We  have  seen  a  boat  moved  by  steam  before."  The  Fire- 
fly was  a  slow  and  awkward  little  vessel,  full  of  machinery, 
noisy  in  her  operation,  and  she  required  twenty-eight 
hours  to  reach  Newport  from  New  York  on  her  first 
trip. 

At  this  time — 1817 — a  large  part  of  the  travel  be- 
tween New  England  and  the  Middle  States  was  carried 
on  by  regular  lines  of  sailing  packets.  These  were  swift, 
beautifully  modelled  sloops  of  about  a  hundred  tons  bur- 
den, elaborately  fitted  with  interior  mahogany  furnish- 
ings. Their  hulls  were  painted  in  gay  colors  and  some- 
times even  inlaid  with  designs  made  of  polished  hard- 
woods. The  main  cabin  of  a  packet  was  about  twelve 
feet  square,  and  from  it  opened  small  but  comfortable 
staterooms.  Excellent  meals  were  served,  with  wines 
and  liquors  at  dinner  and  supper.  The  fare  from  Rhode 
Island  ports  to  New  York  on  a  packet  was  ten  dollars, 
and  with  favoring  winds  a  passage  was  often  made  in 
eighteen  hours.  Similar  vessels  plied  between  all  Atlantic 
coast  ports.  They  usually  ran  once  a  week,  and  were 
deservedly  popular. 

When  the  Firefly  appeared  in  Rhode  Island  and 
challenged  the  Newport  and  Providence  packets  for  the 
passenger  trade  between  those  towns,  the  sailboats  ac- 
cepted the  gauge  of  battle.  Their  agents  stood  on  the  very 
wharf  used  by  the  steamboat,  crying  aloud  that  the 
packets  would  take  travellers  from  one  city  to  the  other 
for  twenty-five  cents,  and  refund  the  money  if  they  did 
not  land  their  passengers  before  the  steamboat  did.  The 

405 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

sailing  craft  gained  the  victory.  They  were  more  than 
a  match  for  the  mechanical  vessel  in  point  of  speed  as 
well  as  in  comfort,  and  the  Firefly  soon  gave  up  the 
contest.  No  sooner  did  tidings  of  success  reach  the  packet 
men  than  they  assembled  in  convention,  denounced  the 


125. — Nearly  every  settler  along  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  chopped  down 
trees  and  maintained  a  wood-pile,  in  order  that  he  might  sell  fuel  to 
passing  steamboats.  A  boat  signalled  its  need  by  whistling,  and  its  crew 
carried  the  wood  aboard  while  the  owner  of  the  fuel  kept  account  of  the 
amount  taken.  A  vendor  sometimes  kept  his  reckoning  by  moving  his 
hand  down  a  series  of  notches  cut  in  a  long  pole. 

outrage  so  successfully  foiled  and  adjourned  to  a  tavern 
to  celebrate  their  triumph  over  all  innovations  in  general 
and  despicable  steam  in  particular.  That  was  the  last 
of  steamboats  in  Rhode  Island  for  four  years. 

Connecticut's  reception  of  steamboats  from  New  York 

406 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

was  even  more  hard-hearted  than  the  greeting  given  to 
them  by  Rhode  Island.  The  first  steamer  sent  to  Con- 
necticut by  the  monopoly-holding  company  was  the 
Fulton?  She  was  built  in  1813-1814  for  use  on  Long 
Island  Sound,  but  was  run  on  the  Hudson  until  the  second 
war  with  England  was  over.  In  1815  she  made  a  num- 
ber of  trips  from  New  York  to  New  Haven  and  New 
London  with  such  small  success  that  the  service  was  dis- 
continued. The  people  of  the  New  England  communities 
were  angered  by  the  law  that  excluded  from  New  York 
waters  the  boats  of  any  other  state  unless  licensed  by  the 
monopoly,  and  they  in  turn  refused  to  patronize  any  steam 
vessels  from  the  neighboring  inhospitable  commonwealth. 
Two  or  three  small  independent  steamboats  were  built 
and  operated  on  the  Connecticut  River  in  the  years  im- 
mediately following  1815,  and  among  them  was  the  Oliver 
Ellsworth,2  a  craft  in  whose  success  the  Connecticut  pub- 
lic took  a  keen  interest.  The  boiler  of  this  boat  exploded 
in  1818,  killing  a  number  of  passengers.  The  state  legis- 
lature happened  to  be  in  session  at  the  time,  and  one 
excited  man,  eager  to  spread  the  deplorable  intelligence, 
rushed  from  the  street  into  the  Assembly  Chamber  in  the 
midst  of  a  debate  and  screamed:  "The  Eliver  Ollsivorth 
has  biled  her  buster!" 

In  1821,  the  Livingston-Fulton  company  again  made 
an  attempt  to  capture  the  passenger  traffic  between  New 
York  City  and  New  England,  and  began  the  renewed 
service  with  an  excursion  to  Providence  and  Newport, 
using  the  Fulton.  No  steamboat  had  visited  those  cities 
from  other  localities  since  the  Firefly  had  been  beaten 
by  the  packet  men  in  1817.  She  entered  the  Rhode  Island 

1  Dimensions,    134   feet   long,   30   feet   wide,   9   feet   depth   of   hold.      Her   paddle-wheels 
were  15  feet  in  diameter  and  she  carried  a  mast  and  sails. 

2  Named  after   the   eminent   Connecticut  Justice. 

407 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

harbors  with  a  brass  band  blaring  on  her  deck  and  her 
passengers  shouting  in  response  to  the  tumult  ashore.  The 
trip  was  a  success,  though  for  some  reason  no  further 
voyages  were  made  for  nearly  a  year.  Steam  travel  be- 
tween New  York  and  the  Connecticut  cities  was  resumed 
by  the  company  in  1822,1  and  immediately  met  a  violent 
popular  hostility.  Resentment  at  New  York's  attitude 
with  respect  to  the  use  of  steamboats  had  still  further 
increased,  and  in  retaliation  the  legislature  passed  an 
act  forbidding  the  use  of  Connecticut  waters  to  any  vessel 
with  a  Livingston-Fulton  license.  By  this  law  the  boats 
of  the  monopoly  were  driven  from  New  Haven  and  New 
London.  Notice  that  steam  travel  between  New  York 
and  Connecticut  had  ceased  was  published  in  the  news- 
papers in  June  of  1822. 

No  sooner  was  the  company  ousted  from  Connecticut 
than  it  turned  once  more  to  Rhode  Island,  and  the  Ful- 
ton and  Connecticut  were  again  sent  to  Providence 
and  Newport.2  Neither  boat  had  staterooms,  and  nearly 
all  the  space  on  board  had  to  be  filled  with  the  enormous 
quantities  of  wood  necessary  to  keep  the  fires  going.  The 
trip  between  New  York  and  Newport  required  from 
eighteen  to  forty  hours,  according  to  the  weather.  With 
the  resumption  of  steam  service  to  Rhode  Island  the 
packet  men  rallied  a  second  time  in  defense  of  their  an- 
cient privilege,  and  their  influence  caused  the  introduction 
of  a  bill  in  the  state  assembly  imposing  a  tax  of  fifty 
cents  on  each  steamboat  traveller  and  restricting  the  land- 
ing, on  Rhode  Island  territory,  of  steamboat  passengers 
from  another  state.  This  bill  passed  the  state  senate  but 
failed  to  receive  the  approval  of  the  lower  house.  A 
majority  of  its  members  were  of  opinion  that  the  pro- 

1  With  the  two  boats  "Fulton"  and  "Connecticut." 

z  The   fare   to    Newport   from    New    York   was   $9;    to    Providence,   $10. 

408 


.._ 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

posed  law  was  unconstitutional.  The  steamboats  there- 
fore continued  to  run,  and  the  days  of  the  old  packets 
were  numbered.  For  a  time,  however — because  of  their 
comfort — sailing  vessels  still  held  a  share  of  the  public 
patronage  in  New  England.  The  Fulton  and  Connecticut 
each  contained  almost  as  much  machinery  as  a  small 
factory,  and  made  a  most  direful  noise  when  in  operation. 
The  cog-wheel  that  turned  the  paddles  of  the  Fulton  had 
teeth  five  inches  long,  and  so  slow  was  her  speed  that  she 
once  consumed  five  hours  in  going  from  Providence  to 
Newport.  When  she  made  a  trip  without  using  sails,  her 
captain  boasted  of  it. 

Maine's  first  steamboat  was  the  hull  of  an  old,  flat- 
bottomed  sailboat  in  which  Captain  Seward  Porter, 
of  Portland,  placed  a  little  engine  in  the  summer 
of  1822.1  It  ran  to  North  Yarmouth  and  other  near-by 
towns,  and  so  strong  was  the  effect  of  the  innovation  on 
popular  imagination  that  even  the  local  constable,  Lewis 
Pease,  burst  into  song  at  its  creation  and  wrote  a  poem  in 
honor  of  the  advance  in  economic  evolution.  The  stanza 
went  thus: 

"A  fig  for  all  your  clumsy  craft, 
"Your  pleasure  boats  and  packets; 
"The  steamboat  lands  you  safe  and  soon 
"At  Mansfield's,  Trott's  or  Brackets'." 

"For  tickets,"  said  the  steamboat  advertisement,  "ap- 
ply to  Mr.  A.  W.  Tinkham's  store." 

Porter's  vessel  was  an  emphatic  success.  Within  two 
years  he  had  a  new  boat  with  a  speed  of  ten  miles  an  hour,2 
and  put  her  to  work  between  Portland  and  Boston.  She 

1  Its   trips   were  advertised   in   the   "Portland   Argus"   of  that  year. 

2  Built  at  New  York. 

410 


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WESTERN   STEAMBOATS.                                 153 

Names. 

Where 
Built. 

a  *i  1  s    o   . 
J=  ^  |  o    -2  |        How  destroyed. 

Eliza 

ti 

Cincinnati 

1821  1  G5          Worn  out. 

Emerald 

h 

Cumb'ld  R. 

1  824150  1830,Worn  out. 

Echo 

h  Pittsburgh 

1826J150J          Worn  out. 

Erie 

h 

do. 

18261125          Worn  out.         [Chain. 

Es?ex 

h 

do. 

1827J135  1829  Broke  in  two,  on  Great 

Emigrant 

h 

Cincinnati 

1829    76  1832  Sunk  by  ice. 

Experiment 

h 

Browns'ille 

1830   85, 

Enterprise 

k 

Pittsburgh 

1830  150 

Eagle 

h 

do. 

1830|  40 

Express 

h 

Cincinnati 

1831  105 

Exchange 

h 

Louisville 

1830   32 

Abandoned. 

Enterprise 

h 

Shoustown 

1830111  1832!Snagged. 

Envoy 

h 

Cincinnati 

1831    96i 

Elk 

h 

Browns'ille  1829    60  1833  Abandoned. 

Emigrant 

h 

Cincinnati 

1832   90  1832  Lost  by  ice. 

Erin 

h 

Covington 

18331100 

Erie 

h 

Browns'ille 

1827   52 

Worn  out. 

Eclipse 

h 

Marietta 

1832   60! 

El'n  Douglass 

h 

N.  Albany  [-1833:266! 

Exchange 

Cookstown 

1835   68 

[vieve. 

Franklin 

Pittsburgh 

1817  150  1822  Snagged,  near  St.  Gen- 

Frankfort 

Ky.  River 

1818  250  1822  Worn  out. 

Fayette 

h 

Louisville 

1819,314           Worn  out. 

Fidelity 

I 

New  York 

182l!l50          Destroyed. 

Florence 

Clarksville 

1822    60 

Destroyed. 

Fire  Fly 

Louisville 

19 

Destroyed. 

Florida 

I 

Pittsburgh 

1826278 

Destroyed. 

Fort  Adams 

125 

Burnt. 

Floridn 

Z;Cincinnati 

1526  250 

Burnt,  on  Mobile  river. 

Feliciana 

ftPhiladelpha 

1820J408 

Still  running. 

Favorite 

h 

Pittsburgh 

1  .>32  260 

Worn  out. 

Florence 

h 

Silver  Cr'k. 

1*2:2  •  60           Worn  out. 

Fanny 

I 

New  York 

1823  120  1827  Went  back  to  N.  York. 

Friendship 

h 

Pittsburgh 

1825200,          Worn  out. 

Fame 

h 

do. 

1826  170  1830  Worn  out. 

Facility 

I 

Cincinnati 

1827  117           Worn  out. 

Fairy 

I 

do.         1827    80  1831  Sunk. 

Forrester 

/tjBrowns'ille 

1827  .100  1833  Burnt,  on  Cumberland. 

Fanner 

I  Cincinnati 

1831277 

Freedom 

h 

Wheeling 

1831135 

, 

Favorite 

h  Nashville 

1831  155  1832  Sunk,  robbed  &  burnt. 

Friend 

li  Cincinnati 

1331  lit*! 

Falcon 

h 

do. 

1832   91  1833  Sunk  by  S.  B.  Senator. 

Fairy  Queen 

fi;Brush  Ck. 

1832    66: 

Friendship 

^Cincinnati 

1833100 

Free  Trader 

h  Pittsburgh 

1832  109 

127. — Sample  page  from  James  Hall's  "List  of  Western  Steamboats,"  giving 
information  regarding  the  age,  size,  length  of  use  and  fate  of  about 
seven  hundred  river  vessels.  From  Hall's  "The  West:  Its  Commerce  and 
Navigation." 


was  called  the  Patent,1  cost  $20,000,  carried  a  mast  and 
sails,  and  had  a  separate  cabin  for  women.2 

During  the  years  and  events  just  reviewed  the  mo- 
nopoly in  New  York  state  continued  to  control  traffic  on 
the  Hudson  without  serious  opposition,  and  the  attitude 
of  that  commonwealth  with  respect  to  the  new  travel 
method  was  made  still  more  interesting  by  its  imposition 
of  a  tax  on  people  who  patronized  steam  craft.  In  1819 
the  comptroller  of  the  state  reported  that  the  tax  on 
steamboat  passengers  in  1817  and  1818  had  amounted  to 
$41,440.  Only  $3,819.82  had  been  required  for  its  col- 
lection, leaving  net  profits  to  the  state  of  $37,620.18.  A 
steamboat  traveller  who  made  a  trip  of  more  than  a  hun- 
dred miles  paid  a  tax  of  one  dollar;  to  go  any  distance 
between  thirty  and  a  hundred  miles  cost  him  fifty  cents. 
He  could  travel  twenty-nine  miles  by  steam  power  with- 
out paying  any  tax  whatever. 

But  at  last  the  long  period  of  monopolies  and  exclusive 
grants  for  the  use  of  steam  power  in  water  transportation 
was  coming  to  a  close,  and  a  protracted  triangular  dispute 
between  New  York,  New  Jersey  and  the  Federal  govern- 
ment was  the  indirect  means  of  bringing  it  to  an  end. 
New  Jersey  had  early  enacted  a  measure  against  New 
York  steamboats  in  retaliation  for  the  attitude  of  the 
larger  state,  and  in  1814  Aaron  Ogden,  governor  of  New 
Jersey,  again  planned  an  invasion  of  the  waters  of  New 
York  Bay  in  an  effort  to  upset  the  Fulton-Livingston 
claims.  He  had  long  been  the  proprietor  of  "an  ancient 
and  accustomed  ferry"  between  Elizabethtown  Point  and 
New  York  City,  and,  in  order  still  further  to  strengthen 

1  Doubtless    indicating   the    payment    of    a    license    fee   either   to   the    Livingston-Fulton 
company  or   to   Roosevelt. 

2  The  "Boston  Courier"  of  August  12,  1824,  describes  her  first  trip.     In  1825  the  steam- 
boat  fare  from   Boston  to   Portland,  with   meals,   was   $5;   to   Bath,  $6;   to  Augusta,   $7;   to 
Eastport,  $11. 

412 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

his  position,  he  also  secured  a  coasting  license  from  the 
United  States  and  an  assignment  to  himself,  from  Fitch's 
heirs,  of  the  original  patent  granted  to  Fitch  and  all  na- 
tional and  state  rights  of  every  sort  in  connection  with  it. 
Having  so  fortified  his  demand  he  presented  to  the  New 
York  legislature  a  statement  asserting  a  right  to  run  steam 
ferry  boats  over  his  route,1  declaring  that  such  service 
would  tend  to  the  public  accommodation,  and  asking  for 
action  on  his  petition. 

Ogden's  memorial  was  considered  by  a  committee  of 
the  New  York  legislature2  which  finally  reported  that  the 
steamboat  had  been  patented  by  Fitch,  that  Fitch  or  his 
assignee  had  all  rights  to  the  invention  during  the  life  of 
the  patent,  that  the  use  of  the  contrivance  afterward  fell 
to  the  public,  and  that  the  exclusive  legislation  of  New 
York  in  favor  of  Fulton  and  Livingston  was  unconstitu- 
tional and  oppressive.  This  report  was  rejected  by  the 
New  York  senate,  and  Ogden  was  not  granted  the  privi- 
lege he  asked.  Ogden  then  brought  the  matter  before 
New  Jersey's  legislature,  but  there  he  was  also  defeated, 
and  so  powerful  were  the  influences  arrayed  against  him 
that  New  Jersey  even  repealed  the  former  measure  which 
excluded  New  York  steamboats  from  its  waters.  A  com- 
promise between  the  Fulton-Livingston  company  and 
Ogden  was  then  effected,  the  quarrel  was  kept  out  of  the 
courts,  and  a  decisive  pronouncement  on  the  question  was 
once  more  avoided. 

So  the  controversy  hung  for  another  ten  years,  with 
Federal  jurisdiction  over  navigable  waters  still  denied  and 
fought  by  New  York,  until  1824.  In  that  year  it  again 
arose  in  an  acute  form  and  was  contested  to  a  finish.  A 

1  As  above  described. 

2  The    chairman    of    the    committee    was    William    Duer,    later    president    of    Columbia 
College.      Duer's   active   interest   in   the   steamboat   question,   as   a   historical   subject,    dated 
from  the  events  under  consideration. 

413 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

prominent  business  man  and  lawyer  of  Georgia,  Thomas 
Gibbons  by  name,  had  settled  in  Elizabethtown,  and  there 
he  invested  some  money  in  a  steam  ferry  to  New  York  in 
opposition  to  the  one  run  by  Ogden.  Gibbons  was  con- 
vinced that  New  York's  attitude  could  not  be  successfully 
maintained,  and  he  resolved  to  embark  in  whatever  course 
of  litigation  might  be  necessary  to  prove  the  soundness  of 
his  belief.  In  order  to  involve  the  general  government 
in  the  contention  he  also  obtained  a  coasting  license  from 
the  Federal  authorities.  Ogden  promptly  obtained  an  in- 
junction against  Gibbons'  ferry  boat  on  the  ground  that 
his  own  rights  had  been  invaded,  and  the  Court  of  Errors 
sustained  him  because  the  case,  in  its  opinion,  presented  no 
conflict  between  state  and  national  laws  and  jurisdiction. 
Gibbons  appealed  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  He  secured  the  services  of  Daniel  Webster  as 
counsel  to  aid  the  Attorney-General,1  and  Webster's  argu- 
ment at  last  placed  before  the  country's  highest  tribunal 
a  clear  picture  of  the  existing  and  intolerable  conditions. 
Judgment,  as  pronounced  by  Chief  Justice  John  Marshall, 
was  rendered  for  Gibbons,  and  by  that  decision  the  navi- 
gable waters  of  the  nation  were  at  last  opened  to  the  free 
use  of  all  men.  State  lines  as  a  barrier  to  the  movement 
of  the  people  were  swept  away,  steam  vehicles  were 
removed  from  classification  with  obscene  books  and 
contagious  diseases,  and  the  principle  of  unhampered 
interstate  travel  and  transportation  and  commerce  by 
mechanical  methods  was  established. 

1  Wirt. 


CONDITIONS  JUST  PRIOR  TO  THE  FIRST  APPEARANCE 
OF  A  MODERN  TRAVEL  AND  TRANSPORTATION  SYS- 
TEM—  ORIGIN  OF  THE  FEDERAL  DOMAIN  OF  PUBLIC 
LANDS  —  FINAL  PHASE  OF  THE  CONTEST  BETWEEN 
RED  MEN  AND  WHITE  —  ATTITUDE  OF  THE  GOVERN- 
MENT TOWARD  THE  INDIANS  BETWEEN  1795  AND 
1830  —  RECOGNITION  OF  INDIAN  SOVEREIGNTY  —  CAU- 
CASIAN SETTLEMENTS  SEPARATED  FROM  EACH  OTHER 
BY  NATIVE  TERRITORIES  —  PERMISSION  FOR  WHITE 
TRAVEL  THROUGH  INDIAN  REGIONS  OBTAINED  BY 
TREATY  —  HOW  THE  SCATTERED  SECTIONS  OF  THE 
NEW  REPUBLIC  WERE  JOINED  BY  NATIVE  CONSENT  - 
SOME  RESULTS  OF  THE  WHITE  DIPLOMACY  —  GENERAL 
HARRISON'S  REPORT  OF  1801 

WHILE  the  people  had  thus  been  engaged  in  their 
effort  to  secure  an  unhampered  use  of  steam  pro- 
pelled vehicles  on  the  natural  water  systems  of  the  country 
there  had  also  been  progressing  a  complex  series  of  other 
events  destined  to  have  powerful  influence  on  the  land 
movement  of  the  population  and  on  all  future  phases  of 
their  development.  Those  things  had  to  do  with  the 
acquirement  of  the  Federal  domain — or  public  lands— 
the  final  phase  of  the  conflict  between  red  men  and  white, 
and  the  acts  of  government1  which  accompanied  a  steadily 
increasing  realization  that  river  transportation  alone 

1  Both  national  and  state. 

415 


could  not  meet  the  needs  of  the  rapidly  growing  nation. 
The  matters  about  to  be  discussed,  in  a  word,  reveal  the 
methods  by  which  all  territory  east  of  the  Mississippi  was 
unified  under  Caucasian  influence,  first  united  by  overland 
highways,  and  finally  brought  into  a  situation  which 
permitted  the  creation  of  a  modern  travel  and  transporta- 
tion system  in  the  shape  of  turnpikes,  canals  and  railroads. 

It  is  possible  that  the  conditions  now  to  be  outlined,  and 
certain  described  events,  policies  and  acts  which  grew  out 
of  those  conditions,  have  had  a  more  intimate  relation  to 
the  later  affairs  of  the  republic  and  the  character  of  its 
inhabitants  than  is  ordinarily  accorded  to  them.  The 
manner  in  which  the  American  republic  grew  during  the 
years  now  under  review — from  1795  until  about  1835  or 
1840 — and  some  of  the  methods  by  which  its  government 
obtained  for  its  citizens  the  right  to  travel  and  spread  over 
the  face  of  the  country,  constitute  a  phase  of  history  that 
has  been  somewhat  neglected.1  The  generation  and  a  half 
embraced  within  the  years  specified  was  a  period  of 
national  character  formation;  a  time  during  which  the 
young  eagle  outgrew  its  pin-feathers,  tested  its  wings  and 
soared  away  toward  an  unknown  destiny.  We  now  seek 
to  discover  the  direction  of  its  first  flight. 

The  military  and  political  battles  of  the  forty  or  forty- 
five  years  subsequent  to  1795  are  familiar,  but  they  are  not 
the  basic  annals  of  that  epoch.  Its  real  history,  as  is  the 
case  with  respect  to  all  periods  of  all  nations,  is  a  tale  of 
the  ambitions,  aversions,  high  endeavor,  selfishness  and 
intrigues  of  men ;  not  a  record  of  the  desperate  struggles  in 
which  those  human  qualities  reach  brief  but  spectacular 
culmination.  So  for  the  purpose  of  these  pages  we  need 
only  concern  ourselves  with  certain  manifestations  of  the 

1  When  compared  with  the  a'tention  and  literature  devoted  to  other  epochs  both  before 
and  after  the  one  mentioned. 

416 


ft    n     i     fj* 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

popular  feeling  of  the  time,  and  with  various  acts  of  gov- 
ernment that  likewise  reflected  the  underlying  attitude  of 
the  English  speaking  race.  A  brief  consideration  of  those 
things  will  make  clear  the  strange  embarrassments  amid 
which  the  white  men  entangled  themselves  during  the 
period  wherein  a  need  for  increased  methods  of  land 
travel  and  transport  became  acute.  Such  a  survey  will 
also  reveal  the  way  whereby  the  country  finally  solved 
the  problems  that  its  need  created.  The  necessity  faced 
by  the  whites  was  imperative  if  they  \vere  to  march 
toward  greater  territorial  dominion  and  economic  de- 
velopment, but  the  tale  of  the  means  they  took  in  accom- 
plishing their  purpose  is  not  in  all  degrees  a  pleasant  one. 
The  battle  of  Fallen  Timbers,  in  the  year  1794, 
indicated  the  end  of  the  long  era  in  which  organized 
physical  resistance  was  a  chief  method  used  by  the 
Indians  to  retard  Caucasian  movement.  With  the 
Treaty  of  Greenville,  following  within  a  year  as  the  re- 
sult of  the  defeat  of  the  confederated  Indians  at  Fallen 
Timbers,  began  the  second  aspect  of  the  contest  between 
the  two  races.  The  final  phase  of  that  struggle  continued 
until  about  1 840,  and  was  marked,  it  is  true,  by  occasional 
brief  outbreaks  of  warfare,1  but  its  most  significant  fea- 
ture—on the  Indian  side — was  a  widespread  and  earnest 
effort  by  native  tribes  both  of  the  North  and  South  to 
adopt  a  new  order  of  life  and  social  customs  patterned  in 
many  respects  after  the  organized  society  of  the  white 
people  around  them.  The  distinguishing  features  of  the 
Caucasian  attitude,  on  the  other  hand,  were  a  persistent 
effort  to  secure  freedom  of  travel  in  Indian  territory  by 
negotiation,  and  an  equally  insistent  attempt  to  obtain  title 
to  native  territory  by  purchase  through  means  of  interna- 

1  Such  as  the  campaign  which  ended  at  the  Battle  of  the  Thames  in   1811,  and   Black 
Hawk's  War  in  1832. 

418 


tional  treaties.  Out  of  these  conflicting  aspirations  finally 
grew  a  situation  deplorable  to  the  red  inhabitants  in  its 
material  results  and  perhaps  equally  unfortunate,  in  its 
moral  consequences,  to  their  victorious  opponents.  To  the 
white  participants  in  the  struggle,  however,  came  eco- 
nomic benefits  of  such  enormous  worth  that  the  moral  cost 
of  their  purchase  was  not  then  observed.  The  end  of  the 
contest  found  the  Caucasians  in  undisputed  ownership 
of  all  the  territory  east  of  the  Mississippi  River;  with 
a  right  to  move  wheresoever  they  chose  in  that  region 
without  hindrance;  and  with  a  national  treasure,  in  the 
shape  of  governmentally  owned  land,  having  value  almost 
beyond  comprehension.  The  course  of  events  leading  to 
the  situation  thus  summed  up  bore  a  constantly  intimate 
relation  to  the  travel  system  that  was  expanding  at  the 
same  time,  and  also  to  the  government's  position  toward 
transportation  facilities  and  their  later  growth. 

It  was  admitted  by  the  Federal  government  during  the 
forty  years  from  its  organization  in  1789  until  about  1830, 
that  purchase  from  European  nations  of  political  claims 
over  additional  territory,  or  the  addition  of  more  land  to 
the  national  domain  through  the  cessions  made  by  states, 
did  not  carry  with  it  a  sovereignty  over  the  Indians,  or 
ownership  of  soil,  or  the  unrestricted  right  to  penetrate, 
for  purposes  of  travel  or  trade,  through  the  regions  so 
obtained.  Nothing  could  be  further  from  the  truth  than 
the  supposition  that  white  Americans,  after  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution,  were  at  liberty  to  travel  wheresoever 
they  pleased  in  what  they  called  their  own  country. 
There  were  some  districts  in  which  they  were  not  allowed 
at  all;  other  immense  tracts  that  they  were  only  permitted 
to  cross  by  the  treaty  consent  of  Indian  governments  and 
in  which  they  had  to  proceed  without  pause  by  certain 

419 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

designated  paths;  and  still  others  to  which  access  could  be 
rightfully  and  safely  gained  only  by  passport. 

From  the  establishment  of  constitutional  government 
the  Republic  conceded  that  the  various  nations  and  tribes 
of  red  natives  were  separate  peoples  vested  with  sov- 
ereignty over  themselves  and  with  rightful  ownership  and 
sovereignty  over  the  areas  they  occupied.  The  only  respect 


129. — Indian  traders  and  others  who  were  confronted  by  the  necessity  of  winter 
travel  sometimes  used  sleds  drawn  by  dogs  while  getting  about  the  country 
now  embraced  in  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois.  Unless  they  employed  dogs 
they  had  to  go  on  snow-shoes.  The  "North  West"  meant  by  the  engraver 
was  the  country  north  of  the  Ohio  River. 

in  which  the  Indians'  sovereignty  over  themselves  may  be 
said  to  have  been  questioned  was  in  the  matter  of  selling 
their  lands,  for  they  were  always  asked  to  refrain  from 
disposing  of  their  territory  to  any  other  foreign  state  ex- 
cept the  United  States  of  America.  But  since  the  United 
States  always  established  friendly  relations  with  Indian 
nations  through  formal  treaties  negotiated  by  plenipoten- 
tiaries or  commissioners  appointed  by  both  sides  for  the 

420 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

purpose — as  was  the  practise  of  the  Republic  in  dealing 
with  other  independent  countries — and  since  a  clause  was 
placed  in  each  foundation  treaty  with  an  Indian  nation 
to  define  the  land  selling  agreement  here  alluded  to,  it 
follows  that  the  United  States  thereby  admitted  the 
sovereign  right  of  the  Indians  to  sell  lands  to  whomsoever 
they  pleased  in  the  absence  of  a  treaty  proviso  to  a  contrary 
effect.  Otherwise  such  a  stipulation  would  have  been  un- 
necessary. The  language  of  those  treaties  was  written  by 
the  white  men,  and  sometimes  the  red  peoples  were  desig- 
nated as  "republics,"  "nations"  or  "confederations,"  and 
their  executives  as  "kings,"  or  "councils."1  In  short  the 
situation  created  through  the  simultaneous  occupation  of 
the  country  by  two  radically  different  races  was  one— 
between  1789  and  1830 — such  as  presaged  the  troubles  that 
were  later  to  arise.  The  rapidly  growing  Caucasian 
nation  held  a  loose  political  power  over  half  a  continent, 
and  yet  acknowledged  that  it  did  not  either  rightfully 
occupy  or  own  a  large  part  of  the  soil  over  which  its  flag 
waved,  and  that  its  citizens  could  not  move  unrestrictedly 
about,  either  on  river  or  land,  of  their  own  free  will.  To 
the  north  of  the  white  confederacy,  on  its  south  and  west 
as  well,  and  even  in  its  midst,  dwelt  other  independent 
nations  that  had  been  there  from  time  immemorial,  that 
still  owned  the  soil,  and  prescribed  laws  for  the  govern- 
ment of  their  own  communities. 

1  The  first  treaty  between  the  United  States  of  America  and  any  Indians  was  that  of 
1778  with  the  Delawares.  It  was  a  "Confederation  entered  into  by  the  Delaware  Nation 
and  the  United  States."  Article  VI  said:  "Whereas  the  enemies  of  the  United  States 
have  endeavored,  by  every  artifice  in  their  power,  to  possess  the  Indians  in  general  with 
an  opinion  that  it  is  the  design  of  the  States  aforesaid  to  extirpate  the  Indians  and  take 
possession  of  their  country;  to  obviate  such  false  suggestion  the  United  States  do  engage 
to  guarantee  to  the  aforesaid  nation  of  Delawares,  and  their  heirs,  all  their  territorial 
rights  in  the  fullest  and  most  ample  manner  .  .  .  And  it  is  further  agreed  on 
between  the  contracting  parties  should  it  for  the  future  be  found  conducive  for  the 
mutual  interest  of  both  parties  to  invite  any  other  tribes  who  have  been  friends  to  the 
interest  of  the  United  States  to  join  the  present  confederation  and  to  form  a  state  whereof 
the  Delaware  nation  shall  be  the  head,  and  have  a  representation  in  Congress;  Provided, 
nothing  contained  in  this  article  to  be  considered  as  conclusive  until  it  meets  with  the 
approbation  of  Congress." — "Indian  Affairs:  Laws  and  Treaties.  Compiled  and  edited 
by  Charles  J.  Kappler,  Wash.,  1904.  Senate  Doc.  319:  58th  congress,  2nd  session." 

421 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Those  dark-skinned  peoples  had  formerly  been  op- 
ponents of  the  whites  in  either  an  active  or  passive  sense, 
but  had  seen  the  uselessness  of  forcible  opposition  to  them 
and  were  even  adopting,  in  some  localities,  various  methods 
of  social  and  industrial  life  introduced  by  the  invading 
millions.  The  newer  Americans,  on  the  other  hand,  knew 
they  could  finally  exterminate  the  remaining  red  men 
by  force  of  numbers  if  they  chose  to  do  so.  But  that 
policy  would  have  required  another  generation  or  two  of 
warfare  and  they  were  not  inclined  to  follow  such  a  plan. 
They  believed  they  could  acquire  the  country  by  using 
methods  no  less  effective  and  more  peaceable.  So  they 
abandoned  advance  by  force  of  arms,  admitted  the  sover- 
eignty and  soil  ownership  of  the  Indians,  and  set  forth  on  a 
program  of  diplomacy  under  which  the  Indians  were  to 
be  treated  as  ostensible  friends  and  neighbors  and  through 
which  the  native  possessions  were  to  be  secured  by  pur- 
chase and  pressure  as  speedily  as  possible.  Permission 
was  also  to  be  obtained  for  the  establishment  of  white 
men's  routes  of  travel  over  those  numerous  sections  of 
Indian  territory  intervening  between  white  communities. 

Those  two  policies  of  the  government — the  systematic 
buying  of  native  lands  and  the  securing  of  public  travel 
privileges  across  such  extensive  territories  as  could  not  at 
once  be  bought — were  usually  carried  out  simultaneously 
whenever  possible,  by  means  of  the  treaty  method.  The 
treaty  of  Greenville  itself,  in  1795,  furnished  one  of  the 
largest  early  opportunities1  for  pursuing  the  purposes  in 

1  Though  not  the  first.  Title  to  some  of  the  soil  now  embraced  within  the  limits  of 
the  southern  states  east  of  the  Mississippi  had  been  previously  gained  through  the  fol- 
lowing treaties,  negotiated  prior  to  1795  by  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  and  the 
Constitutional  government: 

With  the  Cherokees  on    Xov.   28,   1785.  And  soon   after  the  Treaty  of  Greenville 

With  the  Chpctaws  on  Jan.  3,  1786.  still    other'  fragments    of    the    South    were 

With  the  Chicasaws  on  Jan.   10,  1786.  bought  by   the   following  treaties: 

With  the  Creeks  on  Aug.   7,   1790.  With  the  Creeks   on  June  29,   1796. 

With  the  Cherokees  on  July  2,   1791.  With  the  Cherokees   on   Oct.    2,    1798. 

With  the  Cherokees  on  June   26,   1794.  With  the  Chickasaws  on  Oct.  24,  1801. 

422 


0    * 

*~4Z-^/*A— 


% 


ntfas?^/. 


130. — Typical  page  from  an  account  book  kept  by  an  Indian  trader  in  the 
Indiana  country.  Date,  1801-1802.  Showing  the  indebtedness  of  an  Indian 
who  had  owed  $76,  of  which  $12  was  for  whisky,  whose  sale  to  natives 
was  forbidden.  The  account  and  the  bookkeeping  method  are  mentioned 
in  Chanter  XXIV. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

question.  Its  provisions  gave  the  United  States  title  to 
about  two-thirds  of  the  present  state  of  Ohio,1  and  a  con- 
siderable tract  of  country  now  embraced  in  Indiana. 

But  though  the  gaining  of  land  ownership  by  the  whites 
then  seemed  to  be  the  most  important  feature  of  inter- 
national negotiations  with  the  red  men,  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  the  acquirement  of  travel  privileges  through  Indian 
regions  was  no  less  essential  to  the  future  development  of 
the  new  American  union  of  states.  Certain  it  is  that  the 
permission  for  white  movement  thus  constantly  re- 
quested and  given  reveals  the  dependence  of  the  new 
nation  on  the  tolerance  of  those  older  peoples  it  was  seek- 
ing to  displace.  In  a  geographical  sense,  and  with  rela- 
tion to  methods  of  overland  intercommunication,  the 
settled  districts  of  the  wrhite  men  found  themselves  but 
poorly  bound  together  after  constitutional  government 
emerged  from  political  chaos.  Throughout  all  parts  of 
the  country,  except  in  the  sections  along  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board, there  lay  independently  governed  and  alien-owned 
areas,  sometimes  extensive  in  size,  that  formed  barriers 
between  districts  in  which  the  white  men  possessed  both 
soil  and  political  sovereignty. 

Travel  into  these  independent  foreign  domains  was 
not  a  right  possessed  by  the  white  Americans.  Yet  with- 
out an  unrestricted  opportunity  for  white  men  to  pass  to 
and  fro  between  all  their  own  settlements  there  could  be 
no  broad  development,  no  social  and  industrial  progress 
of  the  whole  Caucasian  body  of  population  according  to 
its  own  methods.  Hence  the  series  of  treaty  provisos  by 
which,  from  1795  until  1830,  the  American  government 
secured  for  its  own  citizens  the  establishment  of  white 
men's  travel  routes  through  Indian  possessions.  The 

1  Nearly  17,000,000  acres  in  that  state. 

424 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

diplomatic  campaign  in  question  brought  about  a  con- 
stant intermingling  of  the  two  races  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi; surrounded  the  sovereign  nations  of  red  men  with 
ever  larger  white  communities;  progressively  introduced 
among  the  natives  those  practises  of  Caucasian  society 
which  drained  the  Indians'  strength  and  depleted  their 
numbers;  and  finally  rendered  their  further  close  contact 
with  the  whites,  and  its  attendant  ills,  intolerable  to  them. 
Whenever  that  situation  came  about,  as  it  unremittingly 
did  in  some  locality  or  other,  the  natives  were  willing  to 
sell  their  lands  to  the  white  government  and  go  elsewhere. 
Indeed,  it  was  more  than  willingness  that  then  impelled 
them  to  such  action;  it  was  necessity;  the  instinct  and  need 
of  self-preservation. 

Those  were  some  of  the  circumstances  accompanying 
and  following  the  plan  by  which,  between  1789  and  1830, 
new  travel  routes  were  obtained  to  connect  the  possessions 
of  the  Caucasians.  During  the  later  years  of  the  period  in 
question,  and  as  one  means  of  inducing  the  Indians  to 
grant  desired  privileges,  the  United  States  government  by 
ambiguous  treaty  language  sometimes  led  the  natives  to 
believe  they  were  approaching  citizenship  in  the  white 
republic  with  a  right  to  representation  in  its  national 
legislature. 

It  is  apparent,  then — provided  acts  and  events  can  be 
cited  to  sustain  the  suggestions  here  set  forth — that  the 
subjects:  (1)  of  Caucasian  purpose,  (2)  of  native 
rights  and  aspirations,  (3)  of  race  conflict,  (4)  of 
land  travel  by  white  men,  (5)  of  the  Federal  ownership 
of  land,  (6)  of  governmental  attitude  toward  further  traf- 
fic facilities,  and  (7)  of  the  moral,  social  and  economic 
development  of  the  American  nation  were,  during  the  era 
discussed,  very  intimately  allied.  In  fact  they  were  so 

425 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

inextricably  interwoven  that  no  important  event  could 
then  occur  or  public  policy  be  formulated  in  connection 
with  any  one  of  them  which  did  not  also  affect  all  the 
others  in  greater  or  less  degree.  And  since  they  were  so 
connected  it  is  perhaps  wiser  not  to  deal  with  every  phase 
of  the  subject  separately,  but  to  review  various  incidents  of 
the  period  somewhat  in  chronological  order.  Each  nar- 
rated circumstance  will  fall  into  its  proper  place  as  the 
story  unfolds.  One  thing,  however,  should  be  kept  in 
view.  The  first  and  fundamental  purposes  of  the  new 
nation  were  acquirement  of  land  and  of  permission 
for  its  citizens  to  travel  in  regions  it  could  not  im- 
mediately buy.  Those  later  results  of  the  government's 
methods  and  vacillation,  including  problems  growing  out 
of  Federal  ownership  of  territory  and  adoption  by  the  peo- 
ple of  certain  moral,  social  and  economic  standards;  and 
embarrassments  which  finally  brought  the  country  within 
sight  of  disturbances  amounting  to  civil  war,  were  natural 
and  perhaps  inevitable  outgrowths  of  early  acts  in  the 
general  policy  pursued. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  battle  of  Fallen 
Timbers  and  the  resultant  treaty  of  Greenville1  as  jointly 
marking  the  commencement  of  the  epoch  now  considered, 
and  no  better  method  of  revealing  the  white  man's  attitude 
at  that  time  can  be  chosen  than  by  citing  various  passages 
from  the  compact  which  followed  General  Wayne's  cam- 
paign.2 That  document,  after  transferring  title  in  more 
than  26,000  square  miles  of  Indian  territory  to  the  gov- 
ernment, went  on  to  say3  "  .  .  .  the  United  States  re- 

1  The  Indian  nations  subscribing  to  the  treaty  were  the  Wyandots.  Delawares,  Shaw- 
nees,  Ottawas,  Chippewas,  Potawatomi,  Miamis,  Eel-rivers,  Weas,  Kickapoos,  Pianka- 
shaws  and  Kaskaskias. 

-  Quotations  from  treaties  between  the  United  States  and  various  Indians  that  are 
given  in  the  text  are  taken  from  the  Government's  publication  on  that  subject.  The  work 
is  entitled  "Indian  Affairs.  Laws  and  Treaties.  Compiled  and  edited  by  Charles  J. 
Kappler.  Senate  Document  319,  58th  Congress,  2nd  Session."  The  edition  is  that  of  1904. 

3  In  article  IV. 

426 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

linquish  their  claims  to  all  other  lands  northwest  of  the 
river  Ohio,  eastward  of  the  Mississippi  and  westward  and 
southward  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  waters  uniting 
them  .  .  .'"  The  jurisdiction  of  the  natives  over  white 
men  in  Indian  countries  was  recognized  by  the  following 
statement:2  "If  any  citizen  of  the  United  States,  or  any 
other  white  person  or  persons,  shall  presume  to  settle  upon 
the  lands  now  relinquished  by  the  United  States,  such  citi- 
zen or  other  person  shall  be  out  of  the  protection  of  the 
United  States;  and  the  Indian  tribe  on  whose  land  the 
settlement  shall  be  made  may  drive  off  the  settler,  or  pun- 
ish him  in  such  manner  as  they  shall  think  fit."3  The 
United  States  was  also  granted  the  right  to  destroy  illegal 
white  settlements  and  to  remove  and  punish  the  offenders, 
on  the  ground  that  such  invasions  of  Indian  territory 
would  be  injurious  to  the  Caucasian  nation  as  well  as  to 
the  natives. 

Now  the  negotiation  of  this  treaty,  in  1795,  created  a 
formidable  barrier  of  alien-owned  and  independent  terri- 
tory between  various  long-established  white  communities 
and  others  of  more  recent  origin.  To  the  eastward  of  the 
described  Indian  domain  lay  a  part  of  Ohio,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  all  the  Atlantic  coast  region.  South  of  it  were 
the  Ohio  River,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee,  already  in  the 
grasp  of  the  Caucasians.  Toward  the  north  were  Detroit 
and  Lakes  Erie  and  Michigan,  with  their  obvious  impor- 
tance, and  in  the  west  were  the  Illinois  towns  won  by 
Clark,  and  the  upper  Mississippi  River.  These  posses- 
sions of  the  United  States  were  all  separated  from  one 
another,  and  part  of  them  were  cut  off  from  the  bulk  of 

1  Certain  small  tracts  excepted. 

2  In  article   VI. 

3  It  is   interesting  in   this  relation   to   remember  that  only  within   comparatively  recent 
times    has   the    United    States   acknowledged    that    Japan    possessed   the    right,    through    her 
own   judicial   processes,    to   deport    or   otheiwise    punish   American    citizens   who    might   act 
contrary  to  the  laws  of  that  country  or   who  might  be  undesirable  sojourners  therein. 

427 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

white  population  in  the  East  by  a  region  that  now  includes 
about  one-third  of  Ohio  and  practically  all  of  Indiana  and. 
Illinois,  yet  access  to  them  from  the  East  and  South,  and 
constant  communication  between  them,  was  vital  to  the 
white  republic.  There  were  as  yet  no  roads  in  the  coun- 
try described,  and  the  only  travel  routes  by  which  such 
intercourse  could  be  carried  on  were  Indian  trails  and  the 
rivers. 

But  these  forest  paths  and  streams  were  in  acknowl- 
edged ownership  of  the  red  men,  and  could  not  be  used 
without  their  permission.  The  white  settlements  in  the 
then  western  and  northwestern  sections  of  the  country 
were  thus  isolated  from  one  another,  and  from  the  East, 
unless  a  concession  for  white  travel  was  obtained  from  the 
natives.  Consequently  this  favor  was  sought  and  granted, 
and  a  considerable  part  of  the  treaty  of  Greenville  was 
devoted  to  a  careful  description  of  the  precise  routes 
through  aboriginal  territory  over  which  the  Indians  con- 
sented that  white  men  might  journey.  In  the  language  of 
the  compact1  ".  .  .  the  said  Indian  tribes  will  allow  to 
the  people  of  the  United  States  a  free  passage  by  land  and 
by  water,  as  one  and  the  other  shall  be  found  convenient, 
through  their  country"  ( 1 )  along  the  route  from  the  Ohio 
River  northward  by  way  of  the  Great  Miami,  across  the 
Ft.  Wayne  portage  and  thence  down  the  Maumee2  to 
Lake  Erie;  (2)  from  the  portage  at  Loromie's  Store3  to 
the  Auglaize  River,  and  down  the  Auglaize  to  Fort  Defi- 
ance; (3)  from  the  same  portage  to  the  Sandusky  River, 
down  that  river  to  Lake  Erie,  thence  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Maumee  and  thence  to  Detroit;  (4)  from  the  mouth  of  the 

1  Article    III.     The    long   and    detailed    description    of   the   five    travel    routes    therein 
granted  to  white  men   is  here  condensed.     A   study  of  any  map  of   the  territory   involved 
will  disclose  the  importance  of  the  travel-rights  concession  of  1795  in   its  relation  to  later 
Caucasian   expansion   and   movement. 

2  Then  called  the  "Miami  of  the  Lakes." 

3  On  a  branch  of  the  Great  Miami. 

428 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Chikago1  to  the  portage  between  that  river  and  the  Illi- 
nois, and  thence  over  the  portage  and  down  the  Illinois 
to  the  Mississippi;  (5)  from  Ft.  Wayne  along  the  portage 
leading  to  the  Wabash,  and  thence  down  the  Wabash  to 
the  Ohio." 

So  it  is  seen  that  the  pale-faced  Americans — even  after 
the  final  organization  of  their  present  political  govern- 
ment and  its  theoretical  extension  to  the  Mississippi 
River — were  far  from  having  the  right  to  go  whither- 
soever they  chose  in  the  so-called  United  States.  Other 
sovereignties  lay  scattered  about  between  the  Atlantic 
and  the  Father  of  Waters.  If  they  were  penetrated 
by  a  white  man  desirous  of  reaching  some  point  beyond 
them,  he  had  to  follow  a  definitely  prescribed  path  from 
which  he  could  deviate  only  at  his  own  peril.  If  he  tar- 
ried on  his  way,  and  undertook  to  establish  himself  on 
forbidden  soil  he  placed  himself  beyond  the  recognition  or 
aid  of  his  own  government.  Even  his  life  was  forfeit  if 
the  people  whose  rights  he  had  invaded  chose  to  take  it. 
They  could  "punish  him  in  such  manner  as  they  shall 
think  fit";  he  was  "out  of  the  protection  of  the  United 
States." 

These  five  travel  routes,  so  obtained,  linked  together 
the  white  outposts  of  the  Northwest  and  united  them  with 
the  old  communities  to  the  eastward.  Over  them,  for  years 
thereafter,  proceeded  white  movement  in  the  region  so 
penetrated,  by  canoe,  flatboat,  pack-train  and  moccasin- 
clad  human  feet  until  the  forest  trails  at  last  became  roads 
fit  for  vehicles,  and  little  flat-bottomed  steamboats  puffed 
on  the  shallow  rivers. 

Some  of  the  first  results  attending  the  acquirement  of 
travel  privileges  through  native  territory,  as  has  been  said, 

1  The  Chicago  River. 

429 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


131. — Following  the  traders  into  the  interior  came  overland  caravans  of 
white  settlers,  while  others  floated  down  the  rivers.  The  white  settlers 
destroyed  or  drove  away  the  game,  making  it  impossible  for  the  Indians 
to  pay  the  traders  by  means  of  furs.  A  wagon  caravan  marching  beside 
a  small  stream. 

were  an  intermingling  of  the  two  races  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, the  surrounding  of  red  men  by  constantly  growing 
white  communities  and  the  introduction,  among  the 
natives,  of  Caucasian  practises  harmful  to  Indian  welfare. 
These  consequences  were  more  speedily  visible  and  more 
widespread  in  the  North  than  in  the  South,  and  may  well 
be  described  by  quoting  from  a  document  but  lately  dis- 
covered. The  paper  in  question  is  a  report  dated  at  Fort 
St.  Vincent,1  July  IS,  1801,  and  addressed  by  General 
William  Henry  Harrison  to  the  Secretary  of  War.2 

1  Vincennes,  Indiana. 

2  Hitherto    unpublished,    and   now    in    possession    of   the    Indiana    State    Library.      The 
document    is   one   of   several    thousand    records,    letters   and   manuscripts    dealing   with    the 
early    history    of    the    Northwest    Territory   and    states.      They    were    t' e    accumulation    of 
General    Hyacinthe    Lasselle    and    his    descendants,    and,    being    but    recently    acquired    by 
Indiana,  had  not  been  classified  in   1913.      General  Harrison's  report  appears  to  be  either 
a    preliminary    draft    of    the    communication    or    else   a    copy    made    for    purposes    of    office 
record.      The   War   Department,    referring   to   the    document    in    question,    says    in   a   letter 
to   the   Indiana   State   Library   under   date    of   March   4,    1912:       An    exhaustive   search    of 
the    records    on    file    in    the    War    Department    has    resulted    in    failure    to    find    the    letter 
referred  to   or  any   record  of  it."     Hence   it   is   possible  that   General   Harrison   eventually 
decided  not  to  send  the  document.     If  he  did,  then  the  copy  received  by  the  Government 
at    Washington    has  been    lost. 

430 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Perhaps  no  similar  statement  of  the  time,  prepared  by 
a  man  personally  familiar  with  the  matters  discussed,  pre- 
sents in  so  clear  a  manner  the  condition  of  the  frontier 
country  and  so  dispassionately  allots  responsibility  for  it. 
The  text  of  the  document  is  as  follows  r1 

FORT  ST.  VINCENT,  July  15,  1801. 
To  the  Secretary  of  War: — 

For  the  last  ten  or  twelve  weeks  I  have  been  constantly  engaged 
in  receiving  visits  from  the  Chiefs  of  most  of  the  Indian  Nations  which 
inhabit  this  part  of  the  Territory.  They  all  profess  and  I  believe  that 
most  of  them  feel  a  friendship  for  the  United  States,  but  they  make 
heavy  complaints  of  ill  treatment  on  the  part  of  our  Citizens!  They 
say  that  their  people  have  been  killed,  their  lands  settled  on,  their  game 
wantonly  destroyed,  &  their  young  men  made  drunk  &  cheated  of  the 
peltries  which  formerly  procured  them  necessary  articles  of  Cloathing, 
arms  and  amunition  to  hunt  with. 

Of  the  truth  of  all  those  charges  I  am  well  convinced.  The  Dela- 
ware Chiefs  in  their  address  to  me  mentioned  the  loss  of  six  persons  of 
their  nation  since  the  treaty  of  Greenville  having  been  killed  by  the 
White  people  &  I  have  found  them  correct  as  to  number.  In  one  in- 
stance however  the  White  boy  who  killed  the  Indian  was  tried  and 
acquitted  as  it  was  proved  that  it  was  done  in  self  defense.  In  another 
instance  the  murderer  was  tried  and  acquitted  by  the  Jury,  altho  it  was 
very  evident  that  it  was  a  cruel  and  inprovoked  murder.  About  twelve 
months  ago  a  Delaware  was  killed  in  this  Town  by  a  Citizen  of  the 
Territory  against  whom  a  bill  has  been  found  by  the  grand  jury.  He 
has  however  escaped  and  it  is  reported  that  he  has  gone  to  Natchez 
or  New  Orleans. 

But  the  case  which  seems  to  have  affected  the  Indians  more  than  any 
other  is  the  murder  of  two  men  and  one  woman  of  this  same  nation 
about  three  years  ago.  This  cruel  deed  was  perpetrated  on  this  side 
of  the  Ohio,  forty  or  fifty  miles  below  the  falls  &  is  said  to  have  been 
attended  with  circumstances  of  such  atrocity  as  almost  to  discredit  the 
whole  story  were  it  not  but  too  evident  that  a  great  many  of  the  In- 
habitants of  the  Fronteers  consider  the  murdering  of  Indians  in  the 
highest  degree  meritorious.  The  story  is  this.  About  three  years  ago 
two  Delaware  men  and  a  woman  were  quietly  hunting  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Ohio,  I  believe  on  the  waters  of  Blue  river.  Their 
Camp  was  discovered  by  two  men  I  think  of  the  name  2  of  *  *  *  * 
brothers.  And  these  *  *  *  mutually  determined  to  murder 

them   for  the  purpose  of  possessing  themselves  of   about   fifty  dollars 

1  With    the    exception    of    three    paragraphs    at    the    close,    dealing    more    with    minor 
details  than   questions   of   broad   policy. 

2  The   name   is  given  in  the  manuscript,  but  is   here  omitted. 

431 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

worth  of  property  and  the  trifling  equipage  belonging  to  the  hunting 
camp  of  a  Savage.  They  thought  it  too  dangerous  to  attack  them  openly 
as  one  of  the  Indians  well  known  to  the  white  people  by  the  name  of 
Jim  Galloway  or  Gilloway,  was  remarkable  for  his  strength  and  brav- 
ery. They  approached  the  camp  as  friends  &  as  I  am  toled  they  have 
since  confessed  asked  leave  to  stay  at  the  Indians  Camp  and  hunt  for 
a  few  days.  Their  request  was  granted  &  they  remained  until  a  favor- 
able opportunity  offered  to  carry  their  design  into  effect  &  then  the 
Indians  were  murdered.  Although  they  were  missed  by  their  friends  it 
was  a  long  time  before  their  fate  was  ascertained.  The  murderers  think- 
ing themselves  safe  from  the  length  of  time  which  had  elapsed,  now 
begin  to  talk  of  the  affair,  and  one  of  them  is  said  to  have  declared  that 
he  was  very  nearly  overpowered  by  the  Indian  after  he  had  wounded 
him,  that  he  had  closed  in  with  him  and  the  Indian  was  on  the  point  of 
getting  the  better  of  him  when  his  brother  to  whom  the  murder  of  the 
other  Indian  had  been  committed  came  to  his  assistance. 

Although  I  am  convinced  that  the  facts  above  stated  are  all  true, 
yet  so  difficult  is  it  to  get  testimony  in  a  case  of  this  kind,  that  I  have 
not  as  yet  been  able  to  get  the  necessary  depositions  on  which  to  ground 
an  application  to  the  Executive  of  Kentucky  for  the  delivery  of  these 
people  to  Justice. 

Whenever  I  have  ascertained  that  the  Indian  boundary  line  has  been 
encroached  on  by  the  white  people  I  have  caused  the  Intruders  to  with- 
draw. But  as  the  boundary  line  separating  the  Indian  land  from  that 
to  which  the  title  has  been  extinguished  has  not  been  run,  nor  the  man- 
ner in  which  it  is  to  run  precisely  ascertained  either  a,t  this  place  or  in 
the  country  on  the  Mississippi  called  the  Illinois,  it  is  impossible  to  tell 
when  encroachments- are  made  on  the  Indians  at  those  two  places.  As 
this  is  an  object  of  considerable  importance  to  the  Citizens  of  the  Ter- 
ritory I  must  beg  you  Sir  to  obtain  the  directions  of  the  President  to 
have  it  done  as  soon  as  possible.  The  people  have  been  about  petition- 
ing Congress  on  this  subject  untill  it  was  observed  that  the  President 
was  authorized  by  law  to  cause  all  the  boundaries  between  the  lands  of 
the  U.  N.  States  &  the  Indian  tribes  to  be  ascertained  and  marked. 
Untill  their  boundaries  are  established  it  is  almost  impossible  to  punish 
in  this  quarter  the  persons  who  make  a  practice  of  Hunting  on  the  lands 
of  the  Indians  in  violation  of  law  and  our  treaty  with  that  people. 

This  practice  has  grown  into  a  monstrous  abuse.  Thousands  of  the 
wild  animals  from  which  the  Indians  derive  their  subsistance  have 
been  destroyed  by  the  white  people.  They  complain  in  their  speeches 
to  me  that  many  parts  of  their  Country  which  abounded  with  game 
when  the  general  peace  was  made  in  1795  now  scarcely  contains  a  suffi- 
ciency to  give  food  to  the  few  Indians  who  pass  through  there.  The 
people  of  Kentucky  living  on  the  Ohio  from  the  mouth  of  the  Kentucky 
river  down  to  the  Mississippi  make  a  constant  practice  of  crossing  over 

432 


2  q  o 

3I  5 

S-SL  S 

no  S 

-«    3  3 

^»Q  S! 


o  — 


3  o. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

on  the  Indian  lands  opposite  to  them  every  fall  to  kill  deer,  bear,  and 
buffaloe,  the  latter  from  being  in  great  abundance  a  few  years  ago  is 
now  scarcely  to  be  met  with  in  that  whole  extent.  One  white  hunter 
wrill  destroy  more  game  than  five  of  the  common  Indians,  the  latter  gen- 
erally contenting  himself  with  a  sufficiency  for  present  subsistance,  while 
the  other,  eager  after  game,  hunt  for  the  skin  of  the  animal  alone. 

All  these  Injuries  the  Indians  have  hitherto  borne  with  astonishing 
patience  but  altho  they  discover  no  disposition  to  make  war  upon  the 
United  States  at  present,  I  am  convinced  that  most  of  the  tribes  would 
eagerly  seize  any  favorable  opportunity  for  that  purpose  &  should  the 
United  States  be  at  war  with  any  of  the  European  nations  who  are 
known  to  the  Indians  there  would  probably  be  a  combination  of  nine- 
tenths  of  the  Northern  Tribes  against  us  Unless  some  means  are  made 
use  of  to  conciliate  them.  The  British  have  been  unremitted  in  their 
exertions  to  preserve  their  influence  over  the  Indians  resident  within  our 
Territory  ever  since  the  surrender  of  the  Forts  upon  the  Lakes  &  those 
exertions  are  still  continued.  Last  year  they  delivered  a  greater  quan- 
tity of  goods  to  their  Indians  than  they  have  been  ever  known  to  do, 
and  I  have  been  lately  informed  that  talks  are  now  circulating  amongst 
them  a  which  are  intended  to  lessen  the  small  influence  we  have  over  the 
Indians.  I  cannot  vouch  for  the  truth  of  this  report,  but  I  think  it 
very  probable  that  the  British  will  redouble  their  efforts  to  keep  the 
Indians  in  their  Interest  as  a  means  of  assisting  them  in  any  designs  they 
may  form  against  Louisiana,2  which  it  is  said  will  be  shortly  delivered 
up  to  the  French. 

I  have  had  much  difficulty  with  the  small  tribes  in  this  immediate 
Neighborhood,  viz,  the  Peankashaws,  Weas  &  Eel  river  Indians.  These 
three  tribes  form  a  body  of  the  greatest  Scoundrels  in  the  world.  They 
are  dayly  in  this  town  in  considerable  numbers  and  are  frequently  in- 
toxicated to  the  number  of  thirty  or  forty  at  once.  They  then  commit 
the  greatest  disorders,  drawing  their  knives  and  stabing  every  one  they 
meet  with,  breaking  open  the  Houses  of  the  Citizens,  killing  their  Hogs 
and  cattle  and  breaking  down  their  fences.  But  in  all  their  frolicks  they 
generally  suffer  most  severely  themselves.  They  kill  each  other  without 
mercy.  Some  years  ago  as  many  as  four  were  found  dead  in  the  morn- 
ing &  altho  these  murders  are  actually  committed  in  the  streets  of  the 
town  yet  no  attempt  to  punish  them  has  ever  been  made.  This  for- 
bearance has  made  them  astonishingly  insolent  &  on  a  late  occasion 
(within  8  weeks)  when  one  of  these  rascals  had  killed  without  provoca- 
tion two  of  the  Citizens  in  one  of  the  Traders  Houses  in  this  place, 
&  it  was  found  impossible  to  apprehend  him  alive,  he  was  put  to  death. 
This  piece  of  Justice  so  exasperated  those  of  his  tribe  in  the  neighbor- 
hood that  they  actually  assembled  in  the  borders  of  the  town  with  a 

1  Among  the    Indians.     A    "talk"   was   a   message   or   communication,   either   verbal    or 
written. 

2  Meaning  the  whole  territory  west  of  the  Mississippi  River. 

434 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

design   to   seize   some   favorable   opportunity  of   doing  mischief.      The 
Militia  were  ordered  out  and  their  resentment  has  subsided.1 

Should  you  think  proper  to  garrison  Fort  Knox  with  a  small  body  of 
troops  it  will  be  the  means  of  keeping  the  Indians  under  much  better  con- 
trole  when  they  come  here  to  trade  &  would  enable  the  civil  magis- 
trates to  punish  those  who  violate  the  laws.  Indeed  I  do  not  think 
that  a  military  force  is  so  necessary  on  any  part  of  the  fronteers  as  at 
this  place.  The  inhabitants  tho  fully  able  to  repulse  them  when  aware 
of  their  designs  are  constantly  in  danger  from  their  treachery.  Five 
Hundred  Warriors  might  introduce  themselves  into  the  settlement  un- 
discovered by  the  White  people  &  after  doing  all  the  mischief  in  their 
power  might  make  their  escape  with  as  much  facility.  I  do  not  indeed 
apprehend  in  the  least  that  the  neighbouring  tribes  have  any  inclination 
to  make  open  war  upon  us.  I  fear  only  the  effect  of  some  sudden  resent- 
ment arising  from  their  constant  intercourse  with  the  people  of  this 
town.  In  this  intercourse  causes  of  irritation  are  constantly  produced. 
Twice  within  a  few  months  an  appeal  was  made  to  arms  by  both 
parties,  one  occasioned  by  some  drunken  Indians  attempting  to  force  a 
House  in  which  one  was  killed  and  another  wounded,  the  other  at  the 
time  when  the  two  white  men  were  killed  as  above  mentioned.  Luckily 
however  no  other  mischief  was  done  in  either  instance. 

The  Indian  Chiefs  complain  heavily  of  the  'mischiefs  produced  by 
the  enormous  quantity  of  whiskey  which  the  Traders  introduce  into 
their  Country.  I  do  not  believe  there  are  more  than  six  Hundred  War- 
riers  upon  this  River 2  and  yet  the  quantity  of  whiskey  brought  here 
annually  for  their  use  is  said  to  amount  to  at  least  six  thousand  Gal- 
lons. This  poisonous  liquor  not  only  incapasitates  them  from  obtain- 
ing a  living  by  Hunting  but  it  leads  to  the  most  atrocious  crimes. 
Killing  each  other  has  become  so  customary  amongst  them  that  it  is 
no  longer  a  crime  to  murder  those  whom  they  have  been  most  accus- 
tomed to  estem  and  regard.  Their  Chiefs  and  their  nearest  relations 
fall  under  the  strokes  of  their  Tomhawks  &  Knives.  This  has  been  so 
much  the  case  with  the  three  Tribes  nearest  us,  The  Peankashaws, 
Weas,  &  Eel  River  Miamis,  that  there  is  scarcely  a  Chief  to  be  found 
amongst  them.3  The  Little  Beaver,  a  Wea  Chief  of  note  well  known 
to  me  was  not  long  since  murdered  by  his  own  son.  The  Little  Fox, 
another  Chief  who  was  always  a  friend  to  the  white  people,  was  mur- 
dered at  mid  day  in  the  streets  of  his  town  by  one  of  his  own  nation. 

1  Tn    such    cases,    which    were    constantly   occurring   along   the    border,    the    tribes    to 
wh-'ch    the    involved    Indians   belonged    generally   asserted   that    the    offending   warrior    had 
purposely  been   made  drunk  that  the  white  trader  might  coax  him  into  buying,  on   credit, 
goods  which   he  would  not  have  bought  when   sober,  or  else   that  he   might  be   cheated   in 
respect  of  prices.     When   the  debts  of  the  Indians  had  piled  up  to  large  proportions  they 
hnd   no   way  of  paying  except  by  selling   more  land  to  the  Government  and  then   turning 
all,  or  nearly  all.   of  their  cash  proceeds  over  to  the  traders. 

2  The  Wabash. 

3  Which   probably  accounts,   in   some   measure,  for  the   trouble  due  to  those   particular 
Indians,    previously    mentioned.      The    whisky    resulted    in    affrays,    the    Chiefs    lost    their 
lives   in   trying  to   quell   the  drunken   warriors,   and   the  tribes  lost   the  restraint   exercised 
by   the   Chiefs. 

435 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

All  these  Horrors  are  produced  to  these  Unhappy  people  by  their 
too  frequent  intercourse  with  the  White  people.  This  is  so  certain 
that  I  can  at  once  tell  by  looking  at  an  Indian  whom  I  chance  to  meet 
whether  he  belong  to  a  Neighbouring  or  a  more  distant  Tribe.  The 
latter  is  generally  well  Clothed,  healthy  and  vigorous,  the  former  half 
naked,  filthy  and  enfeebled  with  Intoxication,  and  many  of  them  with- 
out arms  except  a  knife  which  they  carry  for  the  most  vilanous  purposes. 
The  Chiefs  of  the  Kickapoos,  Sacks  and  Potawatimies,  who  lately 
visited  me,  are  sensible  of  the  progress  of  these  measures  and  their  Views 
amongst  themselves,  which  they  are  convinced  will  lead  to  utter  ex- 
terpation  and  earnestly  desire  that  the  introduction  of  such  large  quan- 
tities of  whiskey  amongst  them  may  be  prevented. 

Whether  some  thing  ought  not  to  be  done  to  prevent  the  reproach 
which  will  attach  to  the  American  Character  by  the  exterpation  of  so 
many  human  beings,  I  beg  leave  most  respectfully  to  submit  to  the  Con- 
sideration of  the  President.  That  this  exterpation  will  happen  no  one 
can  doubt  who  knows  the  astonishing  annual  decrease  of  these  unhappy 
beings. 

The  Delawares  are  now  making  an  other  attempt  to  become  agri- 
culturists. They  are  forming  settlements  upon  the  White  river,  a 
branch  of  the  W abash,  under  the  conduct  of  two  Missionaries  of  the 
Society  of  "The  United  Brethren  for  propagating  the  gospel  amongst 
the  Heathens"  otherwise  Meravians.1  To  assist  them  in  this  plan  the 
Chiefs  desire  that  one-half  of  their  next  annuity  may  be  laid  out  in 
implements  of  agriculture  and  in  the  purchase  of  some  domestic  animals 
as  Cows  and  Hogs.  The  Kaskaskias  and  Peankashaws  request  the 
same  thing,2  and  the  Patawatimies  wish  a  few  horse-hoes  may  be  sent 
with  their  goods. 

1  General  Harrison,  of  course,  meant  "Moravians." 

2  Yet  the  Piankashaws  were   one  of  the  three  tribes  named  by  the   General  as   giving 
him   the    most   trouble   because   of   their   drunkenness.      Evidently   even    they    were   willing 
to  make  a  last  effort  for  self-preservation. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

PURCHASE  OF  INDIANA  AND  ILLINOIS  —  THE  GOVERNMENT 
PREVENTS  WHITE  MEN  FROM  GIVING  ADVICE  TO 
INDIANS  —  LAWS  OF  INDIANA  TERRITORY  ON  THE 
SUBJECT  —  FAILURE  OF  TECUMSEH'S  PLAN  TO 
CHECK  CAUCASIAN  ADVANCE  —  HOW  THE  SANTE  FE 
TRAIL,  THE  MICHIGAN  ROAD  AND  OTHER  WHITE 
TRAVEL  ROUTES  WERE  OBTAINED  THROUGH  NATIVE 
CONSENT  —  EXPERIENCES  OF  THE  SHAWNEES  OF 
OHIO  —  THE  STRANGE  WYANDOT  TREATY  —  ORIGIN 
OF  THE  WAR  OF  1832 

THE  process  of  acquiring  title  to  the  soil  now  em- 
braced in  the  state  of  Indiana,  which  was  begun 
at  Greenville  in  1795,  was  resumed  soon  after  Harrison's 
report  of  1801.  In  1803  the  Delawares  sold  a  large  extent 
of  Indiana  territory  through  the  treaty  of  Fort  Wayne, 
and  in  the  following  year  the  same  native  nation,  in  con- 
junction with  other  tribes,  granted  another  extensive  and 
adjacent  region  to  the  United  States.  The  Federal  Con- 
gress, in  1804,  also  passed  an  act  again  acknowledging 
Indian  ownership  of  their  lands.1  This  law  marked  the 
first  official  step  in  the  plan  for  ousting  the  Indians,  in 
bulk,  from  their  eastern  possessions  to  country  west  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  declared  that  "the  President  of  the 
United  States  is  hereby  authorized  to  stipulate  with  any 

1  In  the  law  of  March  26,  by  other  sections  of  which  a  part  of  the  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase was  erected  into  the  "Territory  of  Orleans,"  to  be  governed  by  a  legislature  of 
thirteen  members  appointed  by  the  President. 

437 


A   HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Indian  tribe  owning  lands  on  the  East  side  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  residing  thereon,  for  an  exchange  of  lands 
the  property  of  the  United  States,  on  the  West  side  of  the 
Mississippi,  in  case  the  said  tribe  shall  remove  and  settle 
thereon."1 

Almost  the  whole  eastern  portion  of  the  present  state 
of  Illinois  had  been  obtained  by  the  treaty  of  Vincennes 
in  1803.  That  compact  was  negotiated  with  "the  Kas- 
kaskia  tribe  of  Indians  so  called,  but  which  tribe  is  the 
remains  and  rightfully  represent  all  the  tribes  of  the 
Illinois  Indians."'  The  document  said3  ".  .  .  Finding 
themselves  unable  to  occupy  the  extensive  tract  of  country 
which  of  right  belongs  to  them  and  which  was  possessed 
by  their  ancestors  for  many  generations,  the  chiefs  and 
warriors  of  the  said  tribe  .  .  .  have,  for  the  consid- 
erations hereinafter  mentioned,  relinquished  and  by  these 
presents  do  relinquish  and  cede  to  the  United  States  all 
the  lands  in  the  Illinois  country  .  .  . 

The  price  paid  for  the  eastern  part  of  Illinois  by  the 
United  States  was: 

1.  Sixteen  hundred  and  thirty  acres  of  land  within 
the  territory  ceded,  which  was  to  "remain  to  them  [the 
Indians]  forever"; 

2.  A  fence  around  one  hundred  acres  of  the  land  thus 
re-ceded  to  the  Indians; 

3.  A  house  for  the  chief ; 

4.  An  annuity  of  $1,000  a  year  to  the  tribe; 

5.  A  clergyman  and  teacher  for  seven  years  at  a  sal- 
ary of  $100  a  year; 

6.  A  church  to  cost  $300 ; 

1  Section  XV.     For  text  of  this  and  other  laws  quoted  in   this  chapter,  not   otherwise 
identified,    see    "Laws    of   the    Colonial    and    State    Governments    relating    to    Indians    and 
Indian   Affairs,   from   1633   to    1831.      .      .      .      And   the   Laws   of   Congress    from    1800    to 
1830   on  the  same  subject.     Washington,   1832." 

2  Language  of  the   treaty. 

3  Article   I. 

438 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

7.     Cash  amounting  to  $580. 

This  aggregate  payment,  said  the  treaty,  "is  considered 
as  a  full  and  ample  compensation  for  the  relinquishments 
made  to  the  United  States."1 

Various  other  treaties  were  negotiated  with  natives  of 
the  Northwest  Territory  and  the  interior  during  the  next 
few  years,2  and  in  the  meantime  an  ever  increasing  move- 
ment of  white  travel  was  visible  over  the  communication 
routes  already  granted  by  the  Indians.  Existing  Cau- 
casian settlements  in  the  North  were  swiftly  growing  and 
new  ones  constantly  appeared.  The  leaders  among  the 
Indians  began  to  realize  that  they  were  being  outfought  in 
the  battle  of  wits,  just  as  they  had  been  beaten,  during  an 
earlier  time,  in  physical  strife.  So  they  sought  advice 
from  such  white  men  as  they  trusted,  and  whose  opinions, 
as  they  doubtless  believed  from  long  association,  were  dis- 
interested. In  this  way  the  red  men  hoped  to  obtain 
counsel  which  would  guide  them  in  their  general  course 
of  action,  and,  especially,  help  them  when  negotiating 

1  Article  III. 

2  Among   them   be:ng    treaties   with    the    Sacs    and    Foxes   in    1804:    with    the    Osage    in 
1808    and    the    Chippewas    during   the    same    year.      The    Ottawas,    Potawatomi,    Wyandots 
and   Shawnees  were  also  parties   to  the   Chippewa   treaty   of  1808,  and   in   it  they  jointly 
gave  the   United    States   permission    to   open   a   travel    route   between   the   white   settlements 
of  Ohio  and   Michigan. 

Article  I  said  in  part:  "Whereas,  by  a  treaty  concluded  at  Detroit  ...  in  1807  a 
tract  of  land  lying  to  the  west  and  north  of  the  river  Miami,  of  Lake  Erie,  and  princi- 
pally within  the  Territory  of  Michigan,  was  ceded  by  the  Indian  nations  to  the  United 
States;  and  whereas  the  lands  lying  on  the  southeastern  side  of  the  said  river  Miami 
still  belong  to  the  Indian  nations,  so  that  the  United  States  cannot,  of  right, 
open  and  maintain  a  convenient  road  from  the  settlements  in  the  State  of  Ohio  to  the 
Settlements  in  the  Territory  of  Michigan,  nor  extend  those  settlements  so  as  to  connect 
them;  in  order  therefore  to  promote  th:s  object,  so  desirable  and  evidently  beneficial  to 
the  Indian  nations  as  well  as  the  United  States,  the  parties  have  agreed  to  the  following 
article,  to  wit: 

"  'In  order  to  promote  the  object  aforesaid,  and  in  consideration  of  the  friendship 
they  have  toward  the  United  States  for  the  1'berality  and  benevolent  policy  which  has 
been  practised  toward  them  by  the  government  thereof,  the  s'aid  nation  do  hereby  give, 
grant,  and  cede,  unto  the  United  States,  a  tract  of  land  for  a  road,  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  feet  in  width,  from  the  foot  of  the  rapids  of  the  Miami  of  Lake  Erie  to  the  west- 
ern line  of  the  Connecticut  Reserve,  and  all  the  land  within  one  mile  of  said  road,  on 
each  side  thereof,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  settlements  thereon.  Also,  a  tract  of 
land  for  a  road  only,  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  in  width,  to  run  from  lower  San- 
dusky  southwardly  to  the  boundary  line  established  by  the  treaty  of  Greenville.  .  .  .'  " 

In  its  language,  mean'np  and  effect  this  travel  concess-'on  wi'.l  be  found  to  be  simi- 
lar to  one  negotiated  with  the  Potawatomi  of  Indiana  in  1826.  Those  nations  which 
agreed  in  1808  to  the  compact  here  quoted  gave  permission  for  the  creation  of  white 
highways  designed  to  aid  in  destroying  the  native  power.  By  the  language  of  the  treaty 
the  Indians  were  put  on  record  as  making  the  gift  because  of  the  liberality  and  benevolent 
policy  of  the  United  States  toward  them. 

439 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


First  Hotel  at  Zanesville. 


133. — One  of  the  first  public  structures  in  a  wilderness  settlement  was  a  log 
tavern  for  the  accommodation  of  still  more  west-bound  travellers.  This 
tavern,  kept  by  Landlord  Mclntire  of  Zanesville,  in  Ohio,  once  had  Louis 
Phillipe  of  France  as  a  guest. 

with  the  United  States  for  the  disposal  of  their  territories. 
But  the  white  men's  government  apparently  did  not  wish 
the  Indians  to  receive  aid  of  that  sort,  and  seems  to  have 
taken  action  in  prevention  of  it.  In  the  official  records  of 
Indiana  Territory  is  to  be  found  the  following  law,  passed 
in  1810  and  approved  on  December  15  of  that  year  by 
General  Harrison,  who  was  still  the  Governor.  The  law 
reads:1 

"Whereas,  it  appears  probable  from  certain  documents  which  have 
been  laid  before  the  general  assembly  by  the  governor  that  the  negotiations 
between  the  United  States  and  the  Indian  tribes  are  much  interrupted 
by  the  interference  of  mischievous  individuals,  and  that  the  harmony  and 

1  "Acts  of  the  Assembly  of  the  Indiana  Territory  Passed  at  the  First  Session  of 
the  Third  General  Assembly  of  the  Said  Territory,  etc.  Printed  by  Authority.  Vin- 
cennes,  1810."  Chapter  XXXIV. 


good  understanding  between  the  United  States  and  the  said  tribes  are 
likely  to  be  interrupted,  and  the  peace  which  has  so  long  and  so  happily 
subsisted  jeopardized  by  such  improper  and  unpatriotic  conduct;  and 
whereas  this  general  assembly  is  desirous  to  shew  its  respect  for  the  gen- 
eral government,1  and  to  promote  as  far  as  possible  its  humane  and 
benevolent  policy  of  civilizing  the  Indians  .  .  .  and  being  desirous 
also  to  facilitate  those  extinguishments  of  Indian  title  which  are  at  once 
so  beneficial  to  the  United  States,  their  constituents,  and  the  Indian 
tribes,2  therefore  .  .  . 

"5.  Be  it  further  enacted,  That  if  any  person  or  persons  shall  with- 
out the  permission  of  the  United  States,  or  of  this  territory,  directly  or 
indirectly  commence  or  carry  on  any  verbal  or  written  correspondence  or 
intercourse  with  any  Indian  nation  or  tribe,  or  any  chief,  sachem  or  war- 
rior of  any  Indian  nation  or  tribe,  with  an  intent  to  influence  the  meas- 
ures or  conduct  of  any  Indian  nation  or  tribe,  or  any  chief,  sachem  or 
warrior  of  any  Indian  nation  or  tribe,  in  relation  to  any  negotiations  or 
treaties,  disputes  or  controversies  with  the  United  States  or  this  territory, 
or  to  defeat  the  measures  of  the  government  of  the  United  States  or  this 
territory,  or  if  any  person  or  persons  not  duly  authorized  shall  counsel  or 
advise,  aid  or  assist  in  any  such  correspondence  with  intent  as  aforesaid, 
he,  she  or  they  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  high  misdemeanor  and  on 
conviction  thereof  before  any  court  having  jurisdiction  thereof  shall  be 
punished  by  a  fine  not  exceeding  three  thousand  dollars  and  not  less  than 
one  thousand  dollars." 

It  was  during  this  time  that  Tecumseh  was  busily 
shaping  his  project  for  the  organization  of  a  new  red  con- 
federacy which  should  again  oppose,  primarily  through 
passive  resistance  but  by  arms  if  necessary,  the  Caucasian 
advance.  The  Shawnee  saw  the  final  result  of  influences 
then  at  work  if  they  were  permitted  to  go  on  unchecked.3 
He  therefore  urged  the  political  union  of  all  native  nations 
from  the  Lakes  to  Florida,  and  advocated  an  agreement 
among  them  that  no  division  of  the  proposed  red  federa- 
tion should  sell  any  of  its  lands  to  the  United  States  with- 
out consent  of  all  the  allied  groups.  This  was  the  first 
method  by  which  he  intended  to  combat  the  white  repub- 

1  The  language  of  this  Indiana  Territory  law  seeming',  y  justifies  the  inference  that  ths 
Federal  government  had  requested  its  passage. 

2  Governmental    plans    for    acquiring    regions    from    the    natives    were    usually    put    in 
similar  language. 

3  What!     Sell   land!"    he   exclaimed   on    one   occasion.      "As   well    sell   air   and   water 
The  Great  Spirit  gave  them  in  common  to  all;  the  air  to  breathe,  the  water  to  drink,  and 
the   land  to  live  upon." 

441 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

lie's  effective  plan  of  dealing  with  the  many  tribes  in 
detail.  On  his  final  embassy  through  the  South,  early  in 
1811,  to  secure  cooperation  of  the  Indians  of  those  regions, 
he  was  promised  the  aid  of  the  Muscogees,  but  his 
dramatic  appeal  to  the  powerful  Choctaws  and  Chick- 
asaws  was  barren  of  the  result  he  so  earnestly  desired.  In 
the  memorable  midnight  debate  at  the  Council  on  the 
Tombigbee  the  assembled  nations  were  almost  equally 
divided  in  opinion,  and  the  eloquence  of  Apushamatahah1 
finally  prevailed  against  endorsement  of  the  project. 

Tecumseh,  as  he  spoke,  stood  alone  near  the  huge 
council  fire  in  an  open  space  some  thirty  feet  in  width. 
Behind  him  on  the  ground  were  the  members  of  his  ret- 
inue. By  the  glare  of  the  fire  he  looked  out  over  hun- 
dreds of  concentric  rows  of  silent  seated  men,  that 
stretched  upward  and  backward  into  the  darkness.  While 
he  spoke  no  other  sound  was  heard.  And  at  the 
end,  when  he  called  on  those  who  believed  with  him  to 
whirl  their  tomahawks  upward  as  a  token  of  agreement,2 
the  air  seemed  filled  with  battle-axes  as  the  light  of  the 
flames,  for  an  instant,  glinted  from  their  polished  blades. 
Apushamatahah  followed  the  Shawnee,  and  again  at  the 
close  of  his  address  came  that  strange  demonstration,  im- 
pressive as  before.  There  had  been  no  overwhelming 
popular  verdict,  and  the  final  decision  was  therefore  left 
in  the  hands  of  a  venerable  councillor  who  at  last  advised 
against  Tecumseh's  plan  and  the  general  warfare  which 
all  believed  would  eventually  grow  out  of  its  adoption. 

1  Or   Pushamatahah.      A   Choctaw   chieftain.      For  an   extended   account   of  the   debate, 
see    pages    303    to    319    of    the    "History    of    the    Choctaw,    Chickasaw    and    Natchez    In- 
dians.    By   H.   B.   Cushman.      Greenville,   Texas,   1809."     The  Tomb  gbee  Council   was  pos- 
sibly the  largest  in  point  of  attendance,  as  it  assuredly  was  one  of  the  most  important,  in 
native  history. 

Apushamatahah  fought  beside  General  Jackson  at  New  Orleans.  He  died  while  on 
a  visit  to  Washington  in  1824,  and  the  Government  fired  minute  guns  during  the  progress 
of  his  funeral. 

2  A   method   sometimes   used  at   Councils   to   show   assent.      The   revolving   tomahawks 
went  but  a  few   feet  upward,   and   the   skill  with   which  they  were  handled  prevented  acci- 
dents on  their  descent,  even  in  a  throng. 

442 


134. — Indiana  in  1817,  one  year  after  its  election  into  a  state.  First  of  a  series 
of  three  maps  showing  the  growth  of  a  white  commonwealth  through 
gradual  acquirement  of  Indian  possessions.  The  dotted  line  roughly  indi- 
cates the  boundary  between  the  territories  then  owned  by  natives  and 
Caucasians.  The  white  region  belonged  to  the  Potawatomi,  Miami,  Dela- 
ware  and  other  tribes. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

So  was  history  made  in  the  depths  of  the  southern 
wilderness.  The  Choctaws  and  Chickasaws  at  that  time 
might  have  mustered  six  or  eight  thousand  warriors,  and 
if  the  entire  available  strength  of  the  Mississippi  valley 
Indians  had  been  successfully  enlisted  by  the  red  states- 
man of  the  North,  and  used  effectually  in  either  peaceable 
or  warlike  manner,  then  farther  westward  movement  by 
the  white  race  through  treaty  acquirement  of  travel  routes 
and  land  must  have  been  halted  for  a  long  time.  Tecum- 
seh  started  northward  again,  still  hopeful  and  with  much 
accomplished,  but  reached  Indiana  Territory  only  to  find 
that  his  brother,  The  Prophet,  had  wrecked  his  plans  by 
commencing  hostilities  in  his  absence  and  against  his  ex- 
press command.  The  battle  of  Tippecanoe  had  been 
fought  and  lost  by  the  Indians,  further  native  diplomacy 
was  useless,  and  Tecumseh  had  nothing  left  to  do  but  cast 
his  lot  with  the  British.  He  fell  soon  afterward  at  the 
battle  of  the  Thames. 

During  the  period  of  nearly  twenty  years  intervening 
between  Tecumseh's  death  and  the  outbreak  of  Black 
Hawk's  War,  numerous  further  negotiations  were  carried 
on  between  the  two  races  in  the  North  and  West.1  Four 
of  the  treaties  made  during  the  interval  were  notably  ad- 
vantageous in  adding  more  links  to  the  growing  overland 
communication  system  of  the  white  men.  The  first  of 
these,  ratified  in  1817  with  the  Wyandots,  Senecas,  Ot- 
tawas,  Potawatomi  and  Chippewas,  opened  the  region 
embraced  by  northwestern  Ohio  and  northeastern  Indiana 
to  white  penetration.  Article  XIV  of  the  compact  said: 
"The  United  States  reserve  to  the  proper  authority  the 
right  to  make  roads  through  any  part  of  the  land  granted 
or  reserved  by  this  treaty;  and  also  to  the  different  agents 

1  A  treaty  with  the  Pawnees  in  1818  designated  that  Indian  government  as  "the  sa  d 
Pawnee  Republic." 

444 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

the  rights  of  establishing  taverns  and  ferries  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  travellers  should  the  same  be  found 
necessary." 

The  next  two  treaties,  by  which  native  permission  was 
asked  for  the  use  of  an  important  travel  route,  dealt  with 
the  highway  later  destined  to  become  famous  under  the 
name  of  the  Sante  Fe  Trail.  Congress,  in  1825,  passed  an 
act1  "to  authorize  the  President  of  the  United  States  to 
cause  a  road  to  be  marked  out  from  the  western  frontier  of 
Missouri  to  the  confines  of  New  Mexico."  Governmental 
commissioners  were  authorized  to  perform  the  work.  But 
Congress,  recognizing  the  rights  of  the  Indians  occupying 
regions  through  which  the  road  was  to  run,  also  stipulated 
in  the  law  that  the  commissioners  "first  obtain  the  consent 
of  the  intervening  tribes  of  Indians,  by  treaty,  to  the  mark- 
ing of  said  road,  and  to  the  unmolested  use  thereof  to  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States." 

The  desired  permission  was  obtained.  A  formal 
agreement  was  negotiated  with  the  Great  and  Little 
Osages,  in  Article  I  of  which  was  contained  the  follow- 
ing language:  "The  Chief  and  Head  Men  .  .  . 
for  themselves  and  their  nations,  respectively,  do 
consent  and  agree  that  the  Commissioners  of  the  United 
States  shall  and  may  survey  and  mark  out  a  road,  in  such 
manner  as  they  may  think  proper,  through  any  of  the 
territory  owned  or  claimed  by  the  said  Great  and  Little 
Osage  nations."  For  this  permission  the  United  States 
paid  to  the  two  contracting  red  nations  $500  in  money  and 
merchandise  valued  at  $300.  A  similar  document  was 
likewise  drawn  up  in  1825  with  the  Kansa  tribe,  through 
whose  territory  a  part  of  the  road  was  to  extend,  and  the 
Kansa  were  identically  paid.  Over  the  Santa  Fe  Trail, 

1  Approved  March  3,  1825. 

445 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

for  many  years  thereafter,  passed  pack-trains,  thousands 
of  Conestoga  wagon  caravans  and  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  westward  bound  emigrants  until  the  completion  of  the 
transcontinental  railroads.1 

The  last  of  the  principal  transactions — preceding  Black 
Hawk's  War — by  which  the  whites  added  materially  to 
their  travel  routes  in  the  North  and  West  through  con- 
sent of  the  natives  was  that  with  the  Potawatomi  in  1826. 
The  Potawatomi  still  owned  a  broad  strip  of  coun- 
try extending  directly  across  the  northern  part  of  the 
newly  created  state  of  Indiana,2  and  by  reason  of  their 
possession  the  United  States  settlements  of  the  lower  Ohio 
valley  were  cut  off  from  land  communicaion  with 
the  white  people  of  Michigan.3  Congress  therefore 
authorized  a  treaty  whose  terms,  if  the  natives  consented 
to  it,  should  rid  the  country  of  such  a  condition,  and  the 
representatives  of  the  two  races  met  at  the  Potawatomi 
town  of  Mississinewa  in  October  of  1826,  to  negotiate.4 
The  Caucasians  wrote  the  text  of  the  agreement,  as  was 
the  custom,  and  Article  II  reads  as  follows:  "As  evidence 
of  the  attachment  which  the  Pottawattamie  tribe  feel 
toward  the  American  people  and  particularly  to  the  soil 
of  Indiana,  and  with  a  view  to  demonstrate  their  liber- 
ality, and  benefit  themselves  by  creating  facilities  for 
travelling  and  increasing  the  value  of  their  remaining 
country,  the  said  tribe  do  hereby  cede  to  the  United  States 
a  strip  of  land  commencing  at  Lake  Michigan  and  run- 
ning thence  to  the  Wabash  River,  one  hundred  feet  wide, 

1  A  few  white  men   from  the  United   States  had   penetrated  the   region   opened  by  the 
Santa  Fe  Trail  between  1800  and  the  date  of  its  creation.     Their  adventures  are  narrated 
in  "The  Old  Santa  Fe  Trail"  by  Inman. 

2  The    Indian    territory    in    question    reached    from    Lake    Michigan    southward    to    the 
Wabash   River.      See   illustration    No.    143. 

3  There  was  as  yet  no  road  for  vehicles  extending  northward  to  any  part  of  northern 
Indiana. 

4  The   United    States   plenipotentiaries   were   Lewis   Cass,   John   Tipton   and   James   B. 
Ray. 

446 


HO.  ^__ 

This  is  to  certify,  that 


of  the 

of    ,^j  j, njr-t-^,  -j-^^<,  in  the  county  of 

i»  the  collection' district  of  Indiana,  has  paid  the  duty  of 
dollars  for  the  year  to  end  on  the 


wheel  carriage  for  the  conveyance  of  persons  called 
owned  by    / 


This  certificate  to  be  of  no  avail:  any  longer  than  the  aforesaid  carriage  shall  be  own* 
ed  by  the  said      /& ' ->  X^^ '^^^ 

unless  said  certificate  shall  be  produced  to  the  collector  by  whom  it  was  granted  and  an 
entry  be  made  thereon  specifying  the  name  of  the  then  owner  of  said  carriage,  and  the 
time  when  he  or  she  became  possessed  thereof. 

Given  in  conformity  with  an  act  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  passed  on  the 
ISUiDec,  1814. 


135.— Roads  were  made  through  the  forest  and  wheeled  vehicles  appeared. — A 
license  issued  by  Indiana  in  1817  permitting  a  citizen  to  own  and  use  a 
chaise  on  payment  of  $2  a  year.  Sale  of  the  chaise  without  notice  forfeited 
the  permit.  A  contemporary  hand  has  sketched  the  appearance  of  officers 
of  the  Fifteen;h  Dragoons.  Federal  troops  built  and  occupied  military  posts 
to  awe  the  natives. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

for  a  road,  and  also  one  section  of  good  land  contiguous 
to  said  road  for  each  mile  of  the  same  and  also  for  each 
mile  of  a  road  from  the  termination  thereof,  through  In- 
dianapolis, to  some  convenient  point  on  the  Ohio  River."1 

Indiana  was  authorized  to  build  the  desired  road, 
using  proceeds  derived  from  the  sale  of  the  ceded  lands 
for  that  purpose.  The  thoroughfare  extended  from  Lake 
Michigan  in  a  generally  southward  direction,  passed 
through  the  newly  laid  out  capital  called  Indianapolis, 
and  had  its  southern  terminus  on  the  Ohio  River  at  Madi- 
son. For  many  years  it  was  in  effect  a  national  highway, 
and  was  the  principal  overland  travel  route  connecting 
the  Ohio  valley  and  Ohio  River  with  Lake  Michigan  and 
the  Michigan  settlements. 

The  Michigan  Road  was  well  built  for  its  generation. 
It  was  twenty-four  feet  wide,  and  in  some  parts  consisted 
of  seasoned  oak  timbers,  twenty  feet  long  and  a  foot 
square,  covered  by  one-and-a-half  feet  of  soil  taken  from 
the  ditches  beside  it.2  Over  its  200  miles  of  length  pro- 
ceeded much  of  the  population  that  permanently  occupied 
southern  Michigan  and  Wisconsin,  and  northern  Indiana, 
Ohio  and  Illinois.  In  importance  as  a  land  artery  of 
white  movement,  during  the  era  previous  to  the  general 
appearance  of  railroads  in  the  Middle  West,  it  was  second 

1  In  discussing  the  terms  and  phraseology  of  this  treaty   in  his  monograph   "The  First 
Thoroughfares  of   Indiana,"    Cottman   says:     "Why  the   Pottawattamie   Indians  should  feel 
an  especial  attachment  to  the  American  people,  who  were  gradually  pushing  them  off  the 
earth,   and   how   they   were   to   be   benefitted   by   an   inlet  the   sole   purpose  of   which   was  to 
facilitate  the   oncoming  of  the   usurpers,   and  how,  by  the  light  of  previous  land  transfers, 
the  value  of  their  remaining  country  would  be  enhanced  to  them,  make  a  series  of  queries 
that  need   not  be  discussed  here." 

For  thus  granting  a  travel  route  through  their  territory  and  land  adjncent  to  it  the 
Potawatonu  were  paid  with  apparent  liberality.  They  received  merchandise  appraised 
at  about  $30,000,  were  promised  $2,000  a  year  for  twenty-two  years,  and  $2,000  per 
year  for  Indian  education  as  long  as  Congress  might  think  proper.  The  value  of  their 
recompense,  if  the  annuity  was  paid  and  the  proposed  education  was  maintained  for 
twenty  years,  would  have  been  some  $114,000.  More  than  $240,000  was  obtained  by 
Indiana  through  sale  of  the  land  they  ceded,  and  the  road  was  built  and  maintained 
until  1840  by  money  so  taken  in.  See  reports  of  the  Indiana  Auditor's  office.. 

2  "Reports   and   Estimates   of  the   Michigan    Road   Survey,"  by  Julian   W.   Adams,   En- 
gineer.     (Indianapolis)    December  29,  1837.     Other  sections  were  not  so   well  constructed, 
and  in  rainy  weather  were  at  times — like  other  dirt  roads — almost  impassable. 

448 


only  to  the  Cumberland  Turnpike,  or  National  Road. 
The  red  men  did  not  find  it  to  be  of  such  advantage  to 
them  as  the  phraseology  of  the  treaty  of  1826  had  led 
them  to  expect.  The  Michigan  Road  was  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal agencies  of  their  undoing  in  the  North,  and  that 
their  assent  to  its  creation  should  have  been  asked  in  such 
language  as  was  prepared  for  their  signatures  by  men 
who  presumably  understood  the  significance  of  the 
proposed  work  is,  at  least,  unfortunate.1 

The  western  part  of  what  is  now  Illinois,  embracing 
the  country  between  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi  Rivers, 
had  been  sold  to  the  United  States  by  the  Sacs  and  Foxes 
in  1804  and  1816.-  In  1826  the  Miamis  of  Indiana  dis- 
posed of  the  remainder  of  their  holdings  in  that  state, 
lying  north  and  west  of  the  Wabash  River.  The  Chippe- 
was,  Menomonies  and  Winnebagos,  in  1827,  ceded  certain 
territories  at  present  included  in  the  limits  of  Michigan 
and  Wisconsin,  and  in  the  same  year  the  Potawatomi 
also  sold  a  large  part  of  their  northern  lands  now  in 
Michigan.  The  Shawnees  of  Ohio  disposed  of  all  their 
possessions  in  that  state  in  1831  and  agreed  to  remove 
beyond  the  Mississippi.  In  the  treaty  of  1831  with  the 
Shawnees  the  United  States  agreed,  when  speaking  of 


449 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

the  nation's  new  home  in  the  West,  "that  said  lands  shall 
never  be  within  the  bounds  of  any  state  or  territory,  nor 
subject  to  the  laws  thereof."1 

This  agreement  with  the  Shawnees,  which  is  known  as 
the  Treaty  of  Wapakonetta,  is  one  of  the  comparatively 
few  compacts  of  the  sort  whose  connected  history  has  been 
preserved  through  white  testimony  independent  of  official 
records,  and  a  brief  review  of  the  transaction  and  its  results 
will  be  of  interest.2 

The  representative  of  the  government  sent  to  negotiate 
with  the  Indians  made  an  address  to  them  in  which  he 
said  that  Ohio  was  about  to  extend  its  laws  over  them, 
that  they  would  be  taxed,  killed  if  they  resisted,  and  that 
their  testimony  in  courts  would  be  declared  incompetent. 
He  procured  the  native  signatures  to  the  instrument  on  his 
verbal  declaration  of  its  provisions,  without  reading  or 
translating  its  text  to  the  assembled  chiefs.  The  white 
Indian  traders  who  had  dealt  with  the  tribe,  and  who 
were  creditors  of  the  red  men,  "burnt  up  all  their  books"' 
as  soon  as  the  signatures  had  been  obtained.  On  reading 
the  consummated  treaty  the  Shawnees  found  that  it  stipu- 
lated a  monetary  payment  to  them  which  was  $115,000 
less  than  that  stated  by  the  government's  negotiator,  and 
that  the  100,000  acres  embracing  their  new  home  in  the 
West  was  included  in  a  tract  already  owned  by  the  nation 
through  a  prior  treaty,4  instead  of  being  in  addition,  and 
adjacent  to  the  land  already  owned,  as  explained  to  them. 
They  also  found  that  a  promised  clause  binding  the 
United  States  was  not  included  in  the  document. 

1  Article  X. 

2  The   account  here  given  is   taken  from   the   "History  of   the   Shawnee  Indians  from 
the   year   1681    to    1851,   Inclusive.      By   Henry   Harvey,   Cincinnati,    1855."      Harvey   spent 
many   years   among    the    Shawnees,    and    was    present    and    had    personal    knowledge    of   the 
events   during  and   subsequent   to   the   treaty   discussed.      A   detailed  account   of  the   trans- 
action, including  various  letters  from  governmental  officials  concerning  its  different  phases, 
is  contained   in   his  "History." 

3  Harvey's   language. 

4  That  of  1825. 

450 


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o  I 


A   HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

The  three  principal  features  which  had  induced 
the  natives  to  sign  the  treaty  being  absent  from  it,  the 
nation  sent  a  deputation  to  Washington  as  a  means  of  pro- 
curing correction  of  the  errors.  Harvey,  whose  account 
is  here  followed,  and  whose  knowledge  of  the  circum- 
stances was  believed  to  be  of  value  to  the  Indians,  accom- 
panied the  party.  On  his  arrival  at  the  capital  Secretary 
of  War  Cass  discussed  the  matter  with  Harvey  and  said 
to  him  "that  by  -  -'  treaty  the  Shawnees  would  not 

realize  one  dollar  for  their  land  in  Ohio."1     Further  de- 
tails of  the  interview  are  given  by  Harvey. 

"The  Secretary,"  continues  this  narrative,  "urged 
the  President2  to  hear  us  on  behalf  of  the  Shawnees,  but 
he  refused.  He  [Cass]  then  proposed  to  make  a  treaty 
with  the  delegation  now  in  attendance,  and  set  - 
treaty  aside;  but  in  this  he  failed — the  President  declaring 
that  the  Shawnees  should  fare  no  better  than  the  Chero- 
kees  did."3  As  the  removal  of  the  tribe  at  governmental 
expense  had  been  promised  for  the  spring  of  1832  the 
Indians  planted  no  crops  on  the  lands  they  thought  they 
were  about  to  leave.  So  when  the  expected  migration  was 
not  begun  at  that  time  the  natives  found  themselves  re- 
duced to  starvation.  Finally,  on  appeal  of  Harvey 
to  Secretary  Cass4  the  War  Department  despatched 
provisions  to  the  Indians  and  saved  their  lives.  The 
overland  journey  of  some  800  miles  into  the  West  was 
performed  during  the  following  winter,  through  storms 
and  snow,  and  the  Shawnees  found  no  shelter  prepared  for 
their  arrival.  Many  of  them  had  to  furnish  their  own 
teams  and  wagons  and  bear  a  large  part  of  the  expense 

1  Harvey's   description    of   the  interview. 

2  General  Jackson. 

3  A   reference  whose  meaning  will  become  apparent  in  a   later  chapter. 

4  In  a  letter  dated  August  8.  Text  in  Harvey's  narrative. 

452  ' 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

of  the  journey.1  Again  they  suffered  from  hunger.  A  bill 
was  introduced  in  Congress  by  Mr.  Vance  of  Ohio  appro- 
priating $5,000  for  their  immediate  relief,  but  it  failed 
of  passage,  and  the  tribe  was  kept  through  the  remainder 
of  the  winter  by  charity. 


137. — Many  men  of  the  East,  hearing  tales  of  the  western  country,  made  exten- 
sive journeys  through  the  interior  on  horseback,  by  boat,  or  on  foot,  in 
order  to  see  the  region  for  themselves  or  to  pick  out  future  homes  for  them- 
selves and  their  families. 

Among  the  improvements  they  had  necessarily  left  in 
Ohio  were  their  mills,  which  the  government  had  prom- 
ised to  duplicate  for  them  in  their  new  home.  Other  mills 
were  built  in  the  West,  but  the  government  charged  the 

1  Harvey's  language.     They  travelled  to  what  is  now  Kansas. 

453 


Shawnees  $6,000  for  them  and  took  the  amount  from 
money  due  them.  New  blacksmith  shops  were  erected  on 
a  similar  basis.  The  Congress  at  length  passed  a  bill 
acknowledging  in  some  degree  the  circumstances  here  re- 
viewed, and  appropriating  $30,000  additional  compensa- 
tion for  the  tribal  lands  in  Ohio,  to  be  paid  in  annual 
installments  of  $2,000.  Four  years  elapsed  without  the 
annual  payments  thus  provided  for,  the  War  Department 
taking  the  stand  that  the  $30,000  was  intended  for  use  in 
canceling  native  debts  to  the  white  traders,  but  as  the 
traders'  claims  had  been  found  to  be  fraudulent,  the  ap- 
propriation was  unnecessary.  Harvey  again  took  a  hand 
in  the  dispute,  and  as  a  result  of  his  protest  the  Indians 
received  $8,000  of  arrears.1  Finally,  at  a  still  later  date, 
the  government  reversed  the  action  of  the  Indian  Bureau 
regarding  certain  traders'  claims  for  $8,000  which  had 
been  rejected  as  fraudulent  after  the  burning  of  the  ac- 
count books,  and  paid  them  by  diverting  four  subsequent 
installments  of  the  additional  $30,000  appropriated  to  the 
Shawnees  for  their  Ohio  lands.2 

Another  group  of  Indians,  the  Wyandots  of  Ohio,  gave 
up  in  1832  their  effort  to  establish  a  new  method  of  life 
as  civilized  agriculturists,  and  the  treaty  then  negotiated 
with  them  is  in  one  feature  unique.  It  is  the  only  instru- 
ment of  that  description  wherein  United  States  negotiators 
were  parties  to  an  official  statement  that  the  influence  of 
white  men,  and  association  with  white  men,  lowered  the 
moral  standard  of  the  natives.  The  treaty  begins: 

1  See  Harvey's  correspondence  with  the  War   Department,  in  his  "History." 

2  Harvey's  summary  of  the   Shawnee  character,  and  his  measurement  of  them  as  com- 
pared  with   himself  and  other  white  men  is  interesting.     He  says: 

"During  the  time  I  have  spent  with  the  Shawnees,  on  many  occasions  I  have  been 
looked  up  to  for  counsel  by  men  vastly  my  superiors  in  years,  in  experience,  in  pub'ic 
affairs,  in  intellect  and  in  power  of  speech,  as  well  as  in  fine  feelings;  in  fact,  in  every- 
thing except  in  a  knowledge  of  letters  and  in  the  use  of  them.  .  .  .  They  never  ask 
for  written  evidences  of  the  good  character  of  a  man,  as  we  do.  They  only  wish  to  see 
a  man,  to  look  him  sternly  in  the  fare,  and  observe  his  manner  for  a  few  minutes;  then 
it  is  no  hard  task  to  obtain  from  them  their  opinion  of  the  man,  and  they  are  not  often 
mistaken." 

454 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"Whereas,  the  said  band  of  Wyandots  have  become  fully 
convinced  that  whilst  they  remain  in  their  present  situa- 
tion in  the  State  of  Ohio,  in  the  vicinity  of  a  white  popu- 
lation which  is  continually  increasing  and  crowding  them, 
they  cannot  prosper  and  be  happy,  and  the  morals  of  many 
of  their  people  will  be  daily  becoming  more  and  more 
vitiated  ..." 

Words  of  similar  purport  were  sometimes  used  by 
Caucasian  officials  in  communications  not  primarily  in-- 
tended for  the  public  eye,  such  as  the  Report  of  1801  by 
General  Harrison.  But  never  before,  nor  never  again, 
did  national  treaty  makers  of  the  United  States  join  with 
red  men  in  a  written  admission  that  the  civilization  which 
they  represented  did  not  uplift,  but  degraded,  the  moral 
nature  of  a  people  popularly  considered  to  be  lower  in 
character  than  themselves,  and  that  the  presumed  bar- 
barians must  go  away  to  escape  further  contamination.  So 
different  is  this  Wyandot  treaty  language  from  the 
phraseology  and  pretentions  customarily  employed  on 
like  occasions,  that  a  discovery  of  the  circumstances  under 
which  it  was  introduced  into  the  history  of  American 
diplomacy  would  be  of  interest.  In  all  probability, 
however,  the  cause  of  the  peculiar  incident  is  now  beyond 
research. 

The  last  important  resort  to  arms  by  the  northern 
natives  east  of  the  Mississippi,  in  an  attempt  to  keep  pos- 
session of  their  lands  and  hold  back  the  white  advance, 
was  the  brief  outbreak  of  1832  known  as  Black  Hawk's 
War.  Its  origin  can  be  traced  to  the  treaties  of  1816 
and  1804  by  which  the  Sacs  and  Foxes1  sold  a  part  of 
their  territories,  but  by  the  terms  of  which  they  were 
given  the  right  to  live  and  hunt  on  the  ceded  land  as  long 

1  Of  which  associated  tribes  Black  Hawk  was  a  member. 

455 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

as  it  belonged  to  the  United  States.1  The  treaty  of  1804 
also  guaranteed  to  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  immunity  from 
molestation  by  intruders  or  unlawful  settlers.  Its  lan- 
guage on  the  points  in  question  was  as  follows: 

"Article  4. — The  United  States  will  never  interrupt  the  said  tribes 
in  the  possession  of  the  lands  which  they  rightfully  claim,  but  will  on 
the  contrary  protect  them  in  the  quiet  enjoyment  of  the  same  against 
their  own  citizens  and  against  all  other  white  persons  who  may  intrude 
upon  them.  . 

"Article  6. — If  any  citizen  of  the  United  States  or  other  white  per- 
son should  form  a  settlement  upon  lands  which  are  the  property  of  the 
Sac  and  Fox  tribes,  upon  complaint  being  made  thereof  .  .  .  such 
intruder  forthwith  be  removed." 

About  the  year  18182  an  important  stream  of  invad- 
ing population  from  the  eastward3  had  begun  to  enter- 
the  Illinois  country,  coming  down  the  Ohio  River  on  flat- 
boats  and  overland  along  the  travel  routes  granted  by  the 
Indians  at  Greenville  and  later  treaties.  By  1823  this 
movement  was  in  full  swing,  and  had  also  somewhat 
affected  the  region  now  embraced  in  southern  Wisconsin. 
The  newly  arrived  whites  objected  to  the  continued  use 
of  the  ceded  country  by  Indians  for  hunting  purposes, 
and  also,  as  was  always  the  case  in  similar  advances,  they 
often  settled  down  on  lands  to  which  title  had  not  been 
obtained.  In  truth  the  invading  white  people  were  il- 

1  "Black  Hawk  always  alleged  that  the  cause  of  his  battle  against  the  Americans  was 
the  invalidity  of  the  treaty  of  18U4     .     .     .     but  he  a. so  said  when,  at  a  subsequent  treaty 
(1816)    he   himself   had    'touched    the   quill,'    and   by   which    treaty   the    same    territory   was 
ceded,   that   he   knew   not   what   he   was  signing,   and   that   he   was   therein   deceived   by   the 
agent  and   others,    who   did   not   correctly   explain   the  nature   of  the   grant.      Doubtless  the 
indiscriminate  and  to  a  great  extent  the  lawless  spread  of  immigrating  population  over  the 
newly  acquired   country   on   Rock   River,   and   the   actral   occupat  on   of  his   own   village  by 
the    ll'ino:s    sett'ers,    accompanied   by   the    forcible   eject'on   of   his    own    family   and    others 
of   his   band    from    their   happy   homes   created   a   rankling   wound   which   nothing   less   than 
the  shedding  of  blood  of  the  whites  cor.ld  even  cicatrize,   much  less  effectively  cure.    Yet 
he  denied  that  he  had  gone  to  war  willingly,  and  asserted  that  when  his  flag  of  truce  was 
fired   upon   by   Stillman's  men   his   intention   had   been   to   surrender;   but   as  he  \vap   forced 
into  a  combat,  he  said  to  his  people:    'Since  they  will  fight  us,  let  us  fight.'" — "The  His- 
tory of  Wisconsin":  By  William  R.  Smith:  vol.  1,  p.  285. 

"That  he  was  injured  cannot  be  denied;  and  that  he  displayed  the  white  flag,  and 
gave  notice  of  his  willingness  to  surrender,  with  his  little  band  of  warriors,  on  several 
occasions,  and  was  met  and  answered  by  the  rifle,  is  also  true." — "The  History  of  Illinois": 
By  Carpenter  and  Arthur,  Philadelphia,  1854,  p.  211. 

2  When  a  state  constitution   was  adopted  by   Illinois. 

3  The  earliest  movement  of  the  sort  had  been  into  the  southern  part  of  the  territory, 
and  had  originated  chiefly  in   Virginia,  North  Carolina  and  Kentuc'cy. 

456 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

legally  on  a  part  of  the  Sac  territory  from  the  year  1823. 
Although  there  was  still  a  strip  of  unoccupied  land  some 
fifty  miles  wide  lying  to  the  eastward  of  the  Sac  region, 
the  settlers  from  the  East  did  not  halt  upon  it,  as  they 
might  properly  have  done,  but  advanced  beyond  it  into 
the  forbidden  country.  Once  there  they  plowed  up  the  In- 
dian cornfields,  whipped  the  native  women,  traded 
whisky  to  the  men  and  again  brought  about,  in  an  acute 
degree,  those  unfortunate  conditions  that  often  arose 
through  the  actions  of  a  frontier  population  which  re- 
fused to  recognize  the  existence  of  native  rights  entitled 
to  respect 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  BLACK  HAWK 
AND  THE  SACS  —  ITS  ENDING  AT  BAD  AXE  —  SUCCESS 
IN  SIGHT  IN  THE  NORTH  FOR  THE  GOVERNMENT'S 
PLAN  TO  RID  THE  EAST  OF  INDIANS  —  RELATION  OF 
THE  INDIAN  TRADER  TO  THE  RACE  DRAMA  —  THE 
WILDERNESS  ARITHMETIC  TABLE  —  PROCESS  AND 
GENERAL  RESULT  OF  MAKING  THE  RED  MEN  A  DEBTOR 
CLASS  —  NATIVE  CHARACTERISTICS  THAT  MADE  THE 
OPERATION  POSSIBLE  —  SPECIFIC  EXAMPLES 

AFTER  the  brief  and  bloody  campaign  of  1832  was 
over  the  approval  bestowed  on  its  white  partic- 
ipants by  official  decree  and  popular  opinion  speedily 
obscured  many  of  the  circumstances  that  preceded  and 
were  connected  with  it.  But,  though  hidden  in  obscure 
places,  there  still  remains  enough  contemporary  Caucasian 
testimony  to  reveal  what  took  place  just  before  and  dur- 
ing the  last  important  clash  of  arms  between  red  men  and 
white  east  of  the  Mississippi.  The  question  of  responsibil- 
ity for  the  trouble  was  discussed  by  a  historian  of  the 
period  soon  after  the  war  in  ths  following  words:1 

"I  could  relate  many  anecdotes  to  show  the  friendly  feelings  enter- 
tained toward  our  government  and  people  by  the  Sacs — feelings  which, 
whether  of  fear  or  of  kindness,  have  rendered  them  wrholly  submissive, 
and  which  nothing  but  the  most  unprovoked  aggression  on  our  side 
could  have  kindled  into  hostility."2 

1  Judge  James  Hall,  in  the   "Western   Monthly   Magazine,"  1883.     Hall  was  author   of 
"Statistics  of  the   West  at  the  Close  of  the   Year   1836";    "The   West:    Its   Commerce   and 
Navigation,"  and  similar  works  dealing  with  the   history  of  the  Ohio  valley. 

2  Among  the  incidents  he  thus  narrates  is  the  action  of  Sac  chiefs  in  placing  a  guard 
around   an    isolated   home   of    white   settlers   to   protect    us   occupants   from   possible   annoy- 
ance by  young   Indians  made  drunk  by  other  white  men. 

458 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

The  outbreak  of  warfare  in  the  early  summer  of  18321 
followed  the  movement  of  Black  Hawk  and  his  band 
into  Illinois  from  the  western  side  of  the  Mississippi.  He 
and  the  other  natives  said  their  intention  was  to  raise  a 
much  needed  crop  of  corn  with  the  Winnebagoes.  The 
presence  of  some  two  hundred  women  and  children  in 
the  party,  together  with  domestic  and  agricultural  bag- 
gage, may  be  taken  as  sufficient  indication  that  warfare 
was  not  the  purpose  of  the  Indians.  Nevertheless  a  great 
excitement  among  the  whites  followed  the  arrival  of  the 
red  men  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  river,  and  some  militia 
and  frontiersmen,  together  with  a  number  of  Federal 
troops  were  started  in  pursuit  of  them.  The  combined 
military  force  was  under  command  of  Brigadier  General 
Atkinson  of  the  United  States  Army.  On  May  14  a  half 
hundred  or  more  volunteer  frontiersman  attached  to  the 
white  army  were  authorized,  at  their  own  request,  to 
make  a  march  of  observation  to  a  designated  spot  about 
fifteen  miles  from  the  encampment  of  the  troops.  These 
men  disobeyed  instructions  and  proceeded  about  twelve 
miles  beyond  the  point  named  as  their  destination  until— 
unknown  to  themselves — they  reached  the  vicinity  of 
Black  Hawk's  moving  village.  There,  just  before  sun- 
down, they  saw  coming  toward  them  a  little  group  of 
Indians.2 

1  Keokuk,  principal  chief  of  the  Sacs,  had  finally  ceded  all  tribal  possessions  east  of 
the    Mississippi   to    the    government    in    1830.      Black    Hawk   protested   against   the    sale   of 
his   village    and   Keokuk   promised   an   effort   to   secure   its    retrocession.      Black    Hawk   and 
his   adherents  then   departed   on  the   usual   winter   hunt,   only   to   find   on   their   return  that 
white   set'lers   were   in   possession   of   the   village   and   that   their   own   women   and   children 
were   without   shelter.      Finally    Black   Hawk's   community   was   ousted   by    Illinois   militia, 
though    United    States    General    Gaines    promised    to    provide    its    members    with    necessary 
food    supplies   equivalent   to    those   abandoned,    provided   they   remained   west   of   the    river. 
This  aid  was  not  given  and  the   Ind'ans  were   reduced  in  the  autumn   of  1831  to  crossing 
the   river  for  the  purpose  of  stealing  corn  which  they  had  planted  before  being  driven 
from  the  Illinois  village. 

2  Six  or  eight  in  number.     Black  Hawk's  statement  that  they  were  on  a  peaceful  mis- 
sion  and  bore   a   white   flag    has  been   generally   accepted.      See   the   extracts    from    Smith's 
"History  of  Wisconsin"  and  Carpenter  and  Arthur's  "History  of  Illinois,"  quoted  in  a  pre- 
vious foot-note.     Stillman,  commander  of  the  frontiersmen,  said  the  natives  did  not  bear  a 
white   flag. 

459 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL   IN  AMERICA 


138. — On   their   return  home,   if  favorably   impressed,  they  organized   or  joined 

another  caravan,   loaded  their  possessions  into  wagons  or  boats,   and 

swelled  the  increasing  multitude  of  west-bound  emigrants. 

The  whites  fired  on  the  natives,  shot  one  or  two,  cap- 
tured three  and  chased  the  others,  who  fled  toward  their 
own  camp.  Black  Hawk  on  hearing  of  the  affair  said, 
"Since  they  will  fight  us,  let  us  fight,"  and  turned  his  men 
loose.  Twelve  of  the  frontiersmen  were  killed  and  the 
remainder  fled.  On  the  following  day  Governor  Reynolds 
ordered  three  thousand  militia  under  arms  "to  subdue 
the  Indians  and  drive  them  out  of  the  state."1  War  had 
begun,  and  some  understanding  of  the  sentiment  toward 
the  Sacs  with  which  the  whites  entered  the  campaign  can 
be  gained  by  a  letter  written  at  the  time  by  an  officer  of 
the  white  army,  who  said : 

"General  Atkinson  will  pursue  them,  and  will  give  a  good  account 

1  An  earlier  petition  of  white  settlers  urging  the  use  of  armed  force  in  driving  the 
same  Indians  from  Illinois  recited  a  number  of  grievances  against  the  natives.  One  item 
of  complaint  was  Black  Hawk's  action  in  destroying  a  barrel  of  whisky  which  was  being 
sold  to  the  Sacs  of  his  village. 

460 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

of  them,  I  hope,  before  he  is  done  with  them.  Whether  we  are  to  have 
peace  or  wrar  on  this  frontier  is  to  be  decided  by  the  course  taken  with 
this  band  of  murderers.  They  deserve  nothing  but  death,  and  no  quar- 
ters from  us."1 

In  addition  to  the  Federal  and  state  troops  called  into 
the  field  the  aid  of  the  Sioux,  hereditary  enemies  of  the 

*/ 

Sacs,  was  solicited  by  the  government.  The  Galenian  of 
July  11,  1832,  printed  an  address  delivered  by  General 
Street,  a  Federal  Indian  agent,  at  Prairie  Du  Chien  on 
June  22  to  a  force  of  Sioux  who  had  started  to  join  Atkin- 
son but  had  reconsidered  their  determination  to  take  part 
in  the  campaign  and  had  turned  back.  General  Street 
was  quoted  as  follows: 

"Your  Great  Father  has  forborne  to  use  force,  until  the  Sacs  and 
Foxes  have  dared  to  kill  some  of  his  white  children.  He  will  now  for- 
bear no  longer.  He  has  tried  to  reclaim  them,  and  they  grow  worse. 
He  is  resolved  to  sweep  them  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  They  shall 
no  longer  trouble  his  children.  If  they  cannot  be  made  good  they  must 
be  killed.  They  are  now  separated  from  their  friends  and  country,  and 
he  does  not  intend  to  let  one  return  to  trouble  him  again.  And  he 
directed  me  no  longer  to  restrain  you  from  war.  And  I  said,2  'Go  and 
be  revenged  of  the  murderers  of  your  friends,  if  you  wish  it.  If  you 
desire  revenge,  you  have  permission  to  take  it.  I  will  furnish  you  arms, 
ammunition  and  provisions,  and  here  is  the  man  who  is  sent  to  conduct 
you  to  the  enemy.  .  .  .'  You  turn  and  come  home  without  striking 
a  blow.  Why  is  this?  To  me  your  conduct  is  strange.  I  cannot  com- 
prehend it,  and  want  you  to  explain  the  reasons  that  have  influenced 
you  to  so  disgraceful  a  course.  ...  It  was  not  that  your  Great 
Father  wanted  help  from  you  that  I  told  you  to  go  to  war.  It  was  to 
give  you  an  opportunity  to  revenge  your  slaughtered  friends.  Your 
Father  has  penned  these  Indians  up,  and  he  means  to  kill  them  all.  .  .  . 
He  does  not  ask  you  to  help  him ;  but  if  you  want  revenge,  go  and  take 
it.  This  is  what  I  said  to  you.  And  now  I  repeat  it — if  you  want  to 
kill  the  murderers  of  your  friends  and  families,  go  now  and  do  it; 
for  your  Great  Father  has  devoted  these  Indians  to  death.  He  cannot 
reclaim  them,  and  he  will  kill  them." 

The  Sioux  again  refused,  according  to  the  Galenian,  whereupon 
the  governmental  agent  said: 

1  Written  by  Major  Dodge  to   Dr.   A.   Philleo   of  Galena,   Illinois,  under  date  of  June 
25,  1832.     Published  in  the  "Galenian,"  of  Galena,  on  June  27,   1832. 

2  The   speaker   evidently   refers  to   a   previous   address   made   to   the   Sioux  before   they 
started.     This  speech  was  delivered  after  their  first  return. 

461 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"Go  home  to  your  squaws  and  hoe  corn — you  are  not  fit  to  go  to 
war." 

Further  suggestion  regarding  the  campaign  was  con- 
tained in  a  statement  made  by  the  Detroit  Journal  of 
July  18,  1832,  which  then  said: 

.  We  are  confident  in  the  expectation  that  if  the  Indians  do 
not  decamp  before  our  troops  and  militia  reach  the  ground  where  they 
are  said  to  be  stationed,  few  will  be  suffered  to  escape  alive.  A  general 
massacre  will  be  the  inevitable  consequence.  General  Atkinson  could 
not  prevent  it  if.  he  would ;  and  we  doubt  whether  it  be  not  a  part  of  his 
orders  that  it  should  take  place.  Ordered  or  not,  the  blood  of  the  whites 
is  up,  and  nothing  but  blood  will  appease  them." 

The  Sacs,  fleeing  northward  into  Wisconsin,  and  kill- 
ing a  number  of  settlers  on  the  way,  were  overtaken 
August  2  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  and  there 
ensued  what  is  called  the  Battle  of  Bad  Axe.  A  sufficient 
insight  into  what  then  took  place  can  best  be  given  by 
quoting  brief  extracts  from  statements  of  white  men  who 
were  present,  or  who  through  official  position  or  investi- 
gation obtained  knowledge  of  the  circumstances  of  the 
affair.  Such  comments  follow: 

"The  conflict  resembled  more  a  carnage  than  a  regular  battle."  * 

"It  was  a  horrid  sight  to  witness  little  children,  wounded  and  suffer- 
ing the  most  excruciating  pain."  2 

"It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  very  little  discrimination  appears  to 
have  been  made  in  the  slaughter,  and  that  the  dead  were  of  both  sexes, 
and,  sadder  still,  of  all  ages."3 

"When  the  Indians  were  driven  to  the  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  some 
hundreds  of  men,  women  and  children  plunged  into  the  river  and  hoped 
by  diving,  etc.,  to  escape  the  bullets  of  our  guns;  very  few,  however, 
escaped  our  sharpshooters."  4 

A   steamboat   called    the    Warrior   took   part    in    the 

1  Reynolds'  "My  Own  Times,"  2nd  Edition,  Chicago,  1879. 

2Wakefield's   "History   of   the   War."     Jacksonville.    Illinois.    1834. 

'"The  History  of  Illinois,"  by  Carpenter  and  Arthur.     Philadelphia,   1854,  p.  207. 

4  The  "St.  Joseph  Beacon  and  Indiana  and  Michigan  Intelligencer"  (of  South  Bend, 
Indiana),  September  8,  1832.  The  same  newspaper,  in  previously  describing  tie  condition 
of  the  Indians  during  their  attempted  flight  from  the  white  troops,  had  said  of  them: 
"They  are  in  a  deplorable  condition  for  the  want  of  food,  making  use  of  Bark,  Roots, 
etc.,  almost  entirely  for  subsistence."  This  was  published  on  August  22,  twenty  days 
after  the  battle  but  before  knowledge  of  it  had  reached  the  paper. 

462 


139. — Second  map  of  the  series  showing  the  growth  of  a  white  state.  Indiana 
when  four  years  old.  The  incoming  white  settlers  demanded  more  land, 
and  previous  settlers  had  driven  away  the  Indian  game.  Meanwhile  the 
traders  had  continued  to  sell  goods  to  the  natives  on  credit.  These  conditions 
created  a  situation  which  made  it  impossible  for  the  Indians  to  pay  their 
debts  except  by  selling  more  land  to  the  government  and  giving  the  pro- 
ceeds to  the  traders.  Showing  the  receding  native  boundaries  after  such 
transfers  of  territory. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

conflict.  Besides  her  crew  of  some  twenty  men  she  car- 
ried sixteen  soldiers  of  the  regular  army,  five  frontier 
riflemen  and  a  few  small  cannon.  Her  commander,  soon 
after  the  engagement,  described  the  boat's  participation 
in  a  letter  which  in  part  read: 

".      .  As  we  neared  them  they  raised  a  white  flag,  and  en- 

deavored to  decoy  us,  but  we  were  a  little  too  old  for  them ;  for  instead 
of  landing  we  ordered  them  to  send  a  boat  on  board,  which  they  de- 
clined. After  about  fifteen  minutes  delay,  giving  them  time  to  remove 
a  few  of  their  women  and  children,  we  let  slip  a  six-pounder  loaded 
with  canister,  followed  by  a  severe  fire  of  musketry;  and  if  ever  you 
saw  straight  blankets  you  would  have  seen  them  there.  .  .  .  This 
little  fight  cost  them  twenty-three  killed  and,  of  course,  a  great  many 
wounded.  We  never  lost  a  man,  and  had  but  one  man  wounded.  .  .  . 
I  tell  you  what,  Sam,  there  is  no  fun  in  fighting  Indians,  particularly 
at  this  season,  when  the  grass  is  so  very  bright.  Every  man,  and  even 
my  cabin  boy,  fought  well.  .  .  . "  * 

During  the  fight  several  hundred  Indian  men,  women 
and  children  were  killed  and  a  considerable  number, 
variously  estimated  from  a  hundred  and  fifty  upward, 
were  drowned.2  A  large  proportion  of  those  who  got 
across  the  Mississippi  were  women,  children,  and  old  or 
non-fighting  men. 

The  Sioux  who  had  been  invited  to  participate  in  the 
war,  and  who  had  been  reprimanded  by  General  Street, 
the  Indian  Agent,  for  their  vacillation  in  the  matter,  again 
changed  their  minds  and  did  take  an  active  part  in  the 
campaign.  The  first  subsequent  acknowledgment  of  this 
feature  of  the  case  was  contained  in  an  official  statement 

1  Drake's  "The  Life  and  Adventures  of  Black  Hawk."     From  the  third   (Philadelphia) 
edition  of  1856,   published  by   Rulison  under   the  title  of  "The  Great  Indian   Chief  of   the 
West":  pp.  163-164. 

John  Throckmorton  was  captain  of  the  "Warrior"  and  author  of  the  letter.  The 
Indians  were  without  food,  and  desired  to  surrender.  They  could  send  no  boat,  for  the 
two  or  three  they  had  were  across  the  river,  whence  some  of  the  women  and  children  had 
been  ferried.  The  reference  to  the  bright  grass  meant  that  it  was  no  fun  to  shoot  at  targets 
which  stood  out  so  distinctly  against  such  a  background.  Later  in  the  battle  the  "Warrior" 
discharged  canister  into  a  partly  submerged  island  where  some  swimming  Indians  had 
sought  refuge. 

2  Reynolds  says  about   300   reached   the   west   bank  of  the   river   and   that   fifty   were 
taken    prisoners.      The    total    number    of    natives    of    both    sexes    and    all    ages    was   in    the 
neighborhood  of  1,000.     The  whites  lost  17  killed  and  12  wounded. 

464 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

by  General  Scott1  dated  on  board  the  Warrior  on  August 
10  and  addressed  to  Secretary  of  War  Cass.  In  it  General 
Scott  said: 

".  .  .A  party  of  100  Sioux  was  sent  on  the  morning  of  the 
third  inst.  on  the  principal  trail  of  the  enemy  to  ascertain  and  report  the 
direction  of  the  enemy's  retreat,  No  report  has,  as  yet,  been  received 
from  this  party.  .  .  ." 

The  result  of  thus  sending  the  Sioux  on  the  trail  of 
the  non-combatants  west  of  the  Mississippi  is  outlined 
by  a  communication  published  in  the  St.  Louis  Times 
of  May  21,  1833,  and  signed  "F."  The  letter  read : 

"I  should  like  to  know,  for  information's  sake,  who  it  was  that  em- 
ployed a  party  of  Sioux  warriors  to  follow  sixty  or  seventy  poor  unfor- 
tunate women  and  children  of  the  Sac  and  Fox  nations,  who  had  crossed 
the  Mississippi  River  above  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  were  traveling  on 
their  own  land  toward  the  Wabesepinnecon  River — where  some  five  or 
six  hunters  had  gone  forth  to  furnish  some  meat  for  the  half  starved  and 
half  dead  women  and  children  ? 

"Those  unfortunate  women  and  children  were  getting  out  of  the  way 
of  danger,  when  the  Sioux  bands  were  let  loose,  and  every  soul  perished 
by  their  tomahawks  and  scalping  knives.  The  murder  of  these  unfor- 
tunate women  and  children  ought  to  be  enquired  into  by  the  proper 
authorities,  that  is  to  say,  by  the  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs,  and 
reported  by  him  to  the  government ;  and  let  those  who  advised  the  Sioux 
Indians  to  commit  these  cruelties  be  punished." 

Corroboration  of  this  feature  of  the  government's 
campaign  was  soon  after  supplied  by  an  article  in  the 
Military  and  Naval  Magazine  for  August  of  1833, 
signed  "By  an  Officer  of  Gen.  Atkinson's  Brigade."2  It 
contained  the  following  passage: 

".  .  .  After  the  action  a  body  of  one  hundred  Sioux  warriors 
presented  themselves,  and  asked  leave  to  pursue  on  the  trail  of  such  of 
the  enemy  as  had  escaped.  This  was  granted,  and  the  Sioux,  after  two 
days  pursuit,  overtook  and  killed  fifty  or  sixty,  mostly,  it  is  feared, 
women  and  children." 

No  governmental  statement  relating  to  the  aid 
rendered  by  the  Sioux  was  made,  but  it  developed  in  1859 

1  Who  had   reached  the  scene. 

-  Written  by  Captain  Henry  Smith,  U.   S.  A. 

465 


that  one  of  the  pursuing  chiefs,  prior  to  setting  forth  after 
the  Sacs,  had  been  supplied  by  an  Indian  Agent  and  a 
"soldier  father"1  with  a  military  uniform  and  a  United 
States  flag,  under  which  the  pursuing  Indians  conducted 
their  later  operations.2 

After  the  conclusion  of  the  war  the  following  official 
reports  regarding  the  campaign  and  battle  of  Bad  Axe 
were  made: 

By  General  Atkinson  to  General  Scott,  dated  August  5,  1832: — 
".  .  .  I  cannot  speak  too  highly  of  the  brave  conduct  of  the  regular 
and  volunteer  forces  engaged  in  the  battle. 

Secretary  of  War  Cass  to  General  Atkinson,  on  October  24,  1832: — 
".  .  .  The  result  was  honorable  to  yourself,  and  to  the  officers  and 
men  acting  under  your  orders." 

Secretary  Cass  in  his  annual  report,  dated  November  25,  1832: — 
".  .  .  The  conduct  of  the  officers  and  men  was  exemplary." 

President  Andrew  Jackson  in  his  annual  message  of  December  4, 
1832: — ".  .  .  The  result  has  been  creditable  to  the  troops  engaged 
in  the  service.  Severe  as  is  the  lesson  to  the  Indians,  it  was  rendered 
necessary  by  their  unprovoked  aggressions,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  its 
impression  will  be  permanent  and  salutary.  .  .  .  Our  fellow  citi- 
zens upon  the  frontiers  were  ready,  as  they  always  are,  in  the  tender 
of  their  services  in  the  hour  of  danger."  3 

1  An   Indian   term   for  a   commanding   officer  or  general. 

2  From   a   statement    by   Wah-Con-De-Cor-Ah,   made  by   him   to   Charles   E.    Mix,   Com- 
missioner of  Indian  Affairs,   while  the  Chief  was  on  a  visit  to  Washington  in   1859.     Pub- 
lished  in   the   Washington   "Constitution"   of  April    17,   1S59. 

3  The    following  unpublished   manuscript   verses  are  copied   from   the   original   in   the 
Lasselle   Papers  of  the   Indiana   State   library.      They   illustrate  the  viewpoint   held   during 
Indian  troubles  by  those   frontier  citizens  here  mentioned  by  President  Jackson.     As  soon 
as  hostilities  commenced — even  when  first  attack  as  well  as  provocation  were  due  to  them- 
selves— the  mass  of  the  whites  were  genuinely  unable  to  see  but  one  side  to  the  question 
and   became   possessed    of    a    des're   and    determination   to   kill    Indians   which   took    on   the 
appearance  and  proportions  of  an  exalted  patriotic  frenzy. 

These  verses  re'ate  to  the  P>lack  Hawk  War,  are  dated  "Logansport,  June  3,  1832," 
and  are  signed  "L."  They  read: 

THE  FRONTIER  CALL 

March!    March!     Hear  ye  the  savage  yell! 

Far  to  the   north   where  war  whoops  are   sounding. 

March!      March!     We'll  onward  to  battle 

Where  Black   Hawk  and  Warriors  the  helpless  are  slaying. 

Onward!      March  onward  where   glory  awaits  thee! 

Remember   the  deeds  of  your   Spencer  and  White: 

Remember  their  deeds!     Their   fame  wi'l   inspire  thee 

When   onward   ye   rush,   the   foremost   in   fight. 

Bright  is  the  laurel   entwined   for  the  brave, 

Pure  be  the  tears  for  the  Hero  who  falls; 

Honored   forever  the  youth  who  will   save 

His  country  from  foes,  when  to  battle  she  calls. 

There  is  a  psychological  interest  in  the  impassioned  appeal  with  which  the  white 
youth  is  exerted  to  save  "his  country"  from  its  "foes."  The  white  settlers  had  unlaw- 
fully entered  the  Sac  town  and  lands  nine  years  before.  Black  Hawk's  village  had  been 
an  established  and  permanent  Sac  community  for  at  least  a  century  and  a  half. 

466 


r, 


_ 

3  3- 


l^    p 

O     fD    ^D 

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C   «•  n> 

«>    S"  "• 
O     ft     — 

rt> 

S  3 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

The  treaty  concluding  the  war  transferred  title  to 
30,000,000  more  acres  of  land  from  the  Indians  to  the 
United  States.  For  this  territory,  equal  in  size  to  the 
state  of  New  York,  the  natives  were  promised  an  annuity 
of  $20,000.1 

By  this  period  the  policy  of  the  United  States  had 
proved  so  successful  that,  in  the  North,  it  was  in  com- 
mand of  the  situation.  The  Caucasian  population  was 
multiplying  so  rapidly,  and  means  of  communication  had 
been  so  increased  by  treaty,  road  building,  canal  con- 
struction and  the  use  of  steamboats  that  no  further  serious 
embarrassments  were  possible  in  carrying  out  the  plan 
to  push  the  natives  across  the  Mississippi.  A  few  more 
treaties  were  still  to  be  negotiated  before  the  remaining 
Indian  territories  in  that  part  of  the  country  fell  under 
white  ownership,  but  their  speedy  acquirement  was  seen 
to  be  assured.2  Only  one  other  feature  of  the  time 
requires  attention  in  completing  a  picture  of  the  race 
relations  as  they  then  existed  in  the  upper  part  of  the 
Mississippi  valley.  That  feature  may  have  exerted  a 
strong  though  regrettable  after-influence  on  the  moral 
fibre  of  the  newer  Americans,  and  was  itself,  in  part,  an 
outgrowth  of  methods  and  racial  antagonism  already 
noticed.  It  has  been  observed  that  the  white  people 
coveted  the  red  men's  land,  brought  pressure  on  the 
Indians  to  induce  its  sale,  and  gave  money  for  it.  It 
might  be  supposed  that  after  a  sale  of  that  sort  the  Indians 
would  then  possess  money  but  less  territory.  Such,  how- 
ever, was  not  necessarily  the  cass.  Very  often  they  pos- 
sessed neither.  The  transaction  was  not  always  completed 

1  Representing   a    lump   payment   of   $333,333.    or   about   ten   cents   an   acre.      The   Sacs 
and    Foxes   pave   up    2fi  000  000   acres   ?nd    the    \Yinnebagoes   4.000.000. 

2  For   a   detailed    record   of   territorial   purchases   from   the    Indians   to   the   date   of  its 
publication,    see    "Abstract    of    Indian    treat'es,    whereby    the    United    States    acqu'red    the 
title  to  lands  in   the  States  of  Ohio,   Indiana,   Illinois.    Missouri,   Mississippi   and  Alabama, 
and  in  the  Territories  of  Michigan  and  Arkansas.     Washington,   1828." 

468 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

to  the  satisfaction  of  a  certain  proportion  of  the  whites 
until  they  had  the  land  and  money  both. 

But  little  has  been  purposely  preserved  by  the  history 
recording  race  regarding  those  details  whereby  the  sums 
paid  for  native  lands  were  got  back,  but  in  a  general  way 
the  arrangements  for  the  process  can  be  pieced  together. 
And  again,  for  that  purpose,  we  may  with  profit  turn  for  a 
moment  to  General  Harrison's  report  of  1801.  He  refers 
in  that  letter  to  the  "Traders";  to  a  fatal  affray  in  one  of 
their  establishments  in  Vincennes,  and  to  the  large  quan- 
tities of  whisky  brought  into  the  country  by  them  for 
sale  to  the  Indians.  For  a  century  before  that  document 
was  composed,  and  for  years  thereafter,  the  white  gov- 
ernment through  its  various  political  organizations  and 
agents  had  granted  permits  to  white  men  authorizing 
them  to  sell  merchandise  to  Indians.  Those  permits,  or 
licenses,  were  sought  by  many  white  men  as  a  rapid  way 
to  accumulate  wealth,  and  the  conditions  under  which 
such  traffic  was  conducted  did,  in  fact,  often  offer  an 
opportunity  for  getting  money  in  quantities  that  then 
represented  riches.  Several  reasons  combined  to  pro- 
duce the  result  named.  In  the  first  place  the  Indians 
as  a  rule  were  honest  in  their  dealings  and  presumed  the 
honesty  of  other  men.  They  were  disinclined  to  question 
records  of  commercial  transactions  kept  by  white  men,  and 
kept  none  themselves.  The  goods  bought  by  the  white 
traders  cost  them1  but  a  small  fraction  of  the  prices  at 
which  they  were  sold  to  the  natives,  and  when  the  Indians 
paid  for  their  purchases  by  means  of  furs  or  skins,  then 
those  skins2  were,  in  turn,  only  accepted  at  a  fraction  of 
their  value  to  the  trader.  And  finally,  the  methods  by 

1  Even   after   heavy  transportation   charges  had  been  paid. 

-  Until  the  Indians  began  to  obtain  cash  in  large  amounts  for  the  sale  of  lands,  furs 
and  skins  were  specified  by  legal  enactment  as  the  only  lawful  medium  of  exchange  when 
goods  were  sold  to  natives. 

469 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

which  a  trader  ordinarily  kept  the  record  of  his  accounts 
with  native  customers  offered  unexcelled  chances  for 
imposition. 

Two  examples  of  this  manner  of  Indian  traders'  hook- 
keeping  are  shown  by  photographic  illustrations  else- 
where. They  are  typical  leaves  from  Indian  traders' 
account  books,  the  earliest  dating  from  1801-1802  and  the 
second  from  1829-1830.  Both  reveal  dealings  with 
natives  of  the  Indiana  or  Illinois  country  at  the  periods 
stated.  The  first  is  an  account  showing  that  an  Indian 
called  Antoine  had  been  indebted  to  the  trader  in  the  sum 
of  about  seventy-six  dollars,  of  which  fifty-two  dollars 
had  been  paid.  In  order  to  arrive  at  a  correct  interpre- 
tation of  the  account  it  is  necessary  to  know  the  chief 
factors  of  the  wilderness  arithmetic  table  on  which,  for 
generations,  Indian  trade  was  based.1  It  was  as  follows: 

4  coon  skins  1   "plus" 

2  bear  skins  1   "plus" 

2  bear  skins  3  "plus" 

1   otter  skin  2  "plus" 
1  extra  good 

otter  skin  3  "plus" 
Beaver  skin, 

per  pound  1   "plus" 
Extra  fine  beaver 

skin,  per  pound  =         2  "plus" 

1  "plus"  two  dollars. 

Antoine's  account,  then,  showed  that  he  had  owed  38 
"plus,"  or  $76,  which  he  might  pay  by  any  combination  of 
skins  acceptable  to  the  trader  for  that  amount.  A  "plus" 
was  represented  in  the  account  book  simply  by  a  small 

1  The  table  of  fur  values  as  here  given  is  copied  from  a  manuscript  found  among  the 
Lasselle  Papers  of  the   Indiana  State  Library. 

470 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

vertical  mark  of  the  pen.  An  extra  scratch  or  two  and  an 
Indian — by  the  face  of  the  account — would  owe  $2  or  $4 
more,  as  the  case  might  be.  Antoine,  it  seems,  bought 
$12  worth  of  whisky  at  one  time. 

The  other  account,  showing  a  transaction  of  about 
1830,  was  kept  in  figures  representing  dollars.  By  that 
time  the  Indians  were  in  occasional  receipt  of  cash  after 
selling  lands,  and  paid  debts  either  in  furs  or  coin.  In 
this  case  the  Indian  Chequa  and  his  son  maintained  a 
joint  account  and  had  owed  $54.66.  Credits  by  peltries 
are  entered  to  the  amount  of  $31.33.  As  in  the  case  of 
Antoine,  there  is  a  charge  of  $12  for  whisky,  and  still 
another  of  $7.66  for  the  same  commodity. 

Without  question  there  were  honest  men  engaged  -in 
native  trade,  but  the  known  practises  of  Indian  traders 
as  a  class,  together  with  the  opportunity  confronting  them 
and  the  almost  universal  frontier  Caucasian  estimate  of 
the  Indian  as  a  creature  deserving  but  little  more  con- 
sideration than  was  accorded  to  an  undesirable  wild  ani- 
mal, indicate  that  the  whites,  in  business  transactions  with 
red  men,  generally  adopted  toward  them  an  attitude  lack- 
ing in  fairness  or  honesty. 

The  number  of  white  men  engaged  in  selling  mer- 
chandise1 to  the  natives  by  governmental  permission  was 
always  large,  especially  in  the  region  of  an  Indian  fron- 
tier. General  Harrison,  as  an  example,  issued  forty 
Indian  traders'  licenses  during  the  short  interval  between 
November  20,  1801,  and  January  7,  1802.2  By  that  time, 
though  only  four  months  had  elapsed  since  the  prepara- 
tion of  his  Report,  he  had  apparently  taken  the  law  into 
his  own  hands  with  respect  to  the  liquor  traffic.  Harri- 

1  The   term   "merchandise"   at  t^e  beginning  of  the  nineteenth   century   in   the   Missis- 
sippi   valley,    legally    included    whisky.      That    liquor    was    named    in    the    printed    licenses 
issued  to  retailers  of  goods. 

2  A  manuscript  list  of  these  permits  is  contained  in  the  Lasselle  Papers. 

471 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

son's  printed  traders'  permits  for  the  period  read  "the  said 
.  .  .  shall  not,  by  himself,  his  servants,  agents  or  fac- 
tors, carry  or  cause  to  be  carried  to  the  hunting  camps 
of  the  Indians  any  .  .  .  spirituous  liquors  of  any  kind;  nor 
shall  barter  or  exchange  the  same,  or  any  of  them,  in  any 
quantity  whatever,  on  pain  of  forfeiture  of  this  license 


141. — Type  of  a  quickly  built  and  temporary  log  cabin  often  set  up  by  new 
arrivals  in  the  western  forest.  A  cabin  like  this  could  be  erected  by  several 
men  in  three  or  four  days,  and  sufficed  until  the  construction  of  a  more 
pretentious  log  house.  It  then  served  as  a  storehouse  or  winter  stable. 

and  of  the  goods,  wares  and  merchandise,  and  of  the 
spirituous  liquors  which  may  have  been  carried  to  said 
camps  .  .  .  and  the  Indians  of  the  said  nation  are  at 
full  liberty  to  seize  and  confiscate  the  said  liquors  so  car- 
ried, and  the  owners  shall  have  no  claim  for  the 
same  .  .  . 

In  March  of  1802  the  Federal  Congress  took  notice 

472 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

of  the  subject  on  which  General  Harrison  had  been  so 
emphatic,  and  passed  the  following  law.1  "And  be  it 
further  enacted,  That  the  President  of  the  United  States 
be  authorized  to  take  such  measures,  from  time  to  time, 
as  to  him  may  appear  expedient,  to  prevent  or  restrain 
the  vending  or  distributing  of  spirituous  liquors  among 
all  or  any  of  the  said  Indian  tribes."  But  neither  Gover- 
nor Harrison's  regulation  nor  the  government's  decree 
had  visible  effect,  and  it  was  not  until  18222  that  any  more 
radical  verbal  action  was  taken.  In  that  year  power  was 
given  to  various  officials  by  virtue  of  which  packages  of 
goods  designed  by  traders  for  Indian  consumption  might 
be  opened  and  searched,  "upon  suspicion  or  information 
that  ardent  spirits  are  carried  into  the  Indian  countries 
by  said  traders  .  .  .  and  if  any  ardent  spirits  shall  be 
so  found,  all  the  goods  of  the  said  trader  shall  be  for- 
feited." 

These  local  and  general  laws  were  ignored  by  the 
traders,  nor  does  there  seem  to  have  been  either  a  genuine 
endeavor  to  enforce  them  on  the  part  of  the  authorities, 
or  fear  of  them  by  their  violators.3  Various  means  were 
used  in  concerted  and  widespread  effort  to  make  the  red 
man  a  heavy  monetary  debtor,  and  the  sale  of  whisky  to 
him  was  the  most  powerful  illicit  method  employed  for 
that  purpose.  Such  a  transaction  not  only  netted  large 
profit  in  itself,  but  also— which  was  still  more  impor- 
tant— brought  the  Indian  to  a  condition  in  which  he 
further  enmeshed  himself  in  obligations.  Then,  when 

1  Section  21   of  the  general   laws   of  March   30,   in   regulation   of  Indian   affairs.     This 
proviso,    coming    as    it    did    about    nine    months    after    Harrison's    plea,    suggests    that    his 
Report  may  have  been   received   and   have  bsen   the   basis  of  Congressional  action. 

2  Act   of  May  6:   section   2.     Another   law,  approved  on   the   same   day,   brought  to   an 
end  the  activity  of  the  government  itself  as  an  Indian  trader;  the  practise   had  continued 
since   1811. 

3  As  shown  by  the  reproduction   of   Chequa's  account,   set   down   in   1829   or  1830,   the 
trader   openly   recorded   his   sales   of   whisky   to   the   Indian,   and   in   a   total   bill   of   $54.66 
the  sum   of  $19.66  was  for  that  commodity.     This  is  not  an   isolated  or  unusual  case.     It 
is  typical. 

473 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

the  Indian  was  drunk  and  had  bought  what  he  did  not 
want  or  did.  not  need,  the  entries  could  be  made  in  the 
trader's  account  book.  It  was  but  seldom  that  the  indi- 
vidual native  protested  at  records  which  afterward  con- 
fronted him:  the  imposing  army  of  straight  pen  marks  or 
forbidding  columns  of  figures.  If  he  could  not  find 
the  goods  set  down  against  him,  then — so  the  trader 
might  argue  or  he  himself  believe — he  must  have  lost 
them. 

These  things  had  a  vastly  greater  significance  in  In- 
dian trade  than  they  would  have  had  in  the  similar  case 
of  a  white  purchaser.  To  the  white  customer  it  would 
have  meant  an  individual  obligation  merely,  or  else  bank- 
ruptcy and  relief  from  debt  through  legal  process.1  But 
with  the  Indian  this  was  not  so.  White  traders  encour- 
aged the  individual  natives  to  buy  and  put  no  limit  on 
the  credit  extended  to  them,  even  though  they  might  be 
penniless  and  without  peltry.  That  was  one  of  the  surest 
methods  by  which  the  pale-skinned  race  obtained  more 
travel  routes  over  the  face  of  the  land;  more  square  miles 
of  territory. 

The  explanation  of  this  apparent  mystery  lies  in  the 
fact  that,  in  the  last  analysis,  an  Indian's  individual  debts 
were  tribal  obligations.  If  a  member  of  the  tribe  could 
not  pay  then  his  nation  would  pay,  and  did  pay.  His 
race-brothers  would  sell  the  far-spreading  hunting 
grounds  of  the  whole  people;  would  sell  their  farms  and 
the  earth  above  the  bones  of  their  fathers,  if  necessary, 
rather  than  let  it  be  said  that  any  member  of  the  tribe 
rested  under  an  obligation  which  he  could  not  requite. 
Therefore  it  was  a  practise  of  the  whites  to  involve  an 

1  Ordinary  dealers  in  merchandise  neyer  extended  to  poor  white  men  of  a  community  a 
tithe  of  the  credit  that  was   habitually   given  to   red   men   by   Indian   traders. 

474 


AT  PHILADELPHIA. 1827. 


142. — Third  in  the  series  of  maps.  Indiana  in  1827.  Showing  nearly  all  the 
lately  purchased  territory  organized  into  white  counties.  The  Potawatomi 
were  then  the  largest  proprietors  of  land  north  of  the  Wabash,  and  their 
country  blocked  intercourse  between  the  white  settlements  of  Michigan  and 
Indiana. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Indian  nation  or  community  in  heavy  debt  composed  of 
individual  accounts  while  at  the  same  time — as  General 
Harrison  points  out — driving  away  the  game  by  wholesale 
slaughter.  With  the  banishment  of  animal  life  from  the 
forest  the  natives  could  not  offset  their  debts  with  furs 
and  skins,  and  a  sale  of  tribal  land  to  the  government  was 
their  only  recourse.  When  the  day  approached  whereon 
they  were  to  be  reimbursed  by  Federal  money  for  ceded 
territory  their  creditors  gathered  at  the  appointed  spot.1 
The  accounts  of  the  traders,  and  of  all  others  who— 
either  honestly  or  dishonestly — claimed  reimbursement 
for  goods  sold  or  services  rendered  were  presented  to  the 
tribal  council  and  paid.  Often,  in  such  cases,  there  was 
no  money  left.  If  there  was,  then  whisky  and  merchan- 
dise appeared  as  soon  as  the  national  government's  rep- 
resentatives had  finished  their  work  and  gone  away,"  and 
the  tribe  was  once  more  started  on  its  path  around  the 
same  financial  circle.  The  white  men  also  began  their 
work  of  cutting  new  roads  through  the  ceded  region  and 
dividing  it  up  into  farms. 

On  occasions  when  it  was  known  that  the  Indians 
were  to  receive  considerable  amounts  of  money  there  were 
sometimes  disorders  at  Payment  Grounds.  Perhaps  the 
curtain  of  hypocrisy  would  for  the  moment  be  torn  away 
and  avarice,  dishonesty,  imposition,  fraud  and  theft  would 
be  disclosed,  like  a  flock  of  vultures  waiting  for  the  feast. 
Such  incidents  were  hushed  up  if  possible,  however,  and 
rarely  attained  more  than  a  local  publicity.  They  were 
among  the  things  concerning  which  but  little  was  said 
in  the  public  prints  of  the  day.  Only  when  white  men 
friendly  to  the  Indians  were  present,  and  when  the  pro- 

1  The  place  where  government  officials  met  the  tribe  to  pay  over  the  purchase  money 
was    called    a    "Payment    Ground."      The    cash    was    usually   given    to    the    natives    in    the 
shape  of  silver  dollars,  packed  1000  in  a  box. 

2  Which  was  usually  very  quickly. 

476 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

ceedings  excited  the  anger  of  such  white  men  to  a  point 
which  overcame  considerations  of  self-interest,  was 
clamor  made.  And  even  then  it  was  necessary  for  the 
friendly  whites  to  voice  the  Indian  protest,  for  the  red 
men,  if  left  to  their  own  initiative,  generally  decided  to 
endure  in  silence. 

An  event  somewhat  of  this  sort  happened  in  connec- 
tion with  the  payment  of  $63,000  to  the  Potawatomi 
Indians  of  the  Wabash,  in  1836.  These  were  the  Indiana 
Indians  who,  ten  years  before,  had  granted  to  the  United 
States  and  Indiana  the  right  to  build  the  Michigan  Road, 
and  who  had  also  parted  with  some  of  their  land  in  order 
that  it  might  be  constructed.  The  Wabash  Potawatomi 
had  in  1836  sold  the  remainder  of  their  heritage  and 
had  gathered  to  receive  their  money.  Part  of  the  tribe, 
as  usually  happened  in  transactions  of  the  sort,  was 
strongly  opposed  to  removal  beyond  the  Mississippi,  but 
the  treaty  had  been  signed  and  further  objections  by  the 
disaffected  ones,  though  bitter,  were  futile.  A  record  of 
what  happened  at  the  Payment  Ground  was  made  by  a 
white  man  friendly  to  one  native  faction,  and  from  the 
account  therein  contained — and  also  from  what  appears 
between  the  lines  of  it — can  be  reconstructed  the  drama 
which  led  up  to  and  accompanied  the  disappearance  of 
the  Potawatomi  from  their  former  home.  That  divi- 
sion of  the  nation  which  objected  to  the  sale  and  removal 
also  had  its  white  champion,  and  his  views  are  indirectly 
set  forth  by  the  chronicler.  Both  native  factions  were  of 
course  willing  to  pay  their  just  debts.  The  main  conten- 
tions were  concerning  the  methods  by  which  the  whites 
had  secured  the  treaty,  and  over  the  disposal  of  the  money 
received.  The  narrative  is  in  the  shape  of  an  appeal  to 

477 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN   AMERICA 

the  President  by  the  treaty-signing  faction,  and  reads  as 
follows:1 

To  our  Great  Father, 
Andrew  Jackson, 

President  of  the  United  States. 

".  .  .  .Father,  we  have  always  listened  well  to  your  good  advice 
and  wise  counsels,  and  we  find  them  good.  We  know  you  are  a  great, 
brave  and  good  man,  that  you  wTill  do  as  you  promise.  We  come  now 
with  sore  hearts  and  our  minds  filled  with  sorrow  to  speak  with  you  and 
tell  you  true.  We  intended  to  speak  to  you  through  our  Father  whom 
you  have  placed  here  near  us  (Col.  *  *  *  *)  2  but  he  has  gone  away  and 
can't  hear  us.  Before  we  had  signed  treaties  to  him,  Father,  for  all  our 
Lands,  he  was  always  ready  to  hear  us  and  to  promise  us  the  protection 
of  your  strong  arm  3  but  now  he  has  our  Treaties  in  his  pocket  for  our 
entire  Country,  he  has  no  time  to  hear  us,  nor  to  protect  us.  ... 

"We  wish  and  intend  to  follow  the  advice  and  counsels  of  our  Great 
Father  and  we  look  to  him  for  support  and  protection.  That  protection 
has  been  promised  us,  and  which  was  a  strong  inducement  with  us  when 
we  sold  our  Lands.  .  .  Again  we  saw  there  were  too  many  white 
people  about  our  reserves  for  us  to  live  on  them  in  pease  and  we  signed 
a  general  Treaty  in  September  last,  selling  all  our  lands  to  our  Great 
Father,  and  agreed  to  go  West  of  the  Mississippi,  and  accept  of  that 
home  he  had  there  provided  for  us. 

"Father,  so  soon  as  this  fact  was  known  .  .  .  being  now  as- 
sembled together  near  the  Tippecanoe  River  where  we  were  to  receive 
our  money  a  great  excitement  prevailed.  Those  Indians  who  opposed  us 
held  a  Council  of  War  and  resolved  that  every  one  of  us  who  had  signed 
the  Treaty  should  be  killed,  and  they  proceeded  to  appoint  War  Chiefs 
whose  duty  it  should  be,  and  now  is,  to  see  their  decree  put  in  execution 
And  on  the  next  day,  being  the  day  on  which  we  had  received  our 
annuity  and  Treaty  money,  the  house  we  were  in  transacting  business 
was  surrounded  by  those  Indians  and  their  associates  and  advisers.  .  .  . 
Alex  Coquillard,  a  bad  man  who  has  always  opposed  our  Great  Father's 
policy,  was  among  them.  .  .  .  He  got  upon  a  house  and  made  a 
speech.  .  .  .  He  told  them  we  were  not  Chiefs,  that  we  were  boys 
and  hog  thieves,  that  the  President  of  the  United  States  was  a  bad  man, 
a  rascal,  and  that  he  had  stolen  the  Indian  Lands,  that  he  was  now 
robbing  them  of  their  money  (because  we  were  willing  to  pay  our  just 
debts)  and  that  he  would  next  send  us  away  like  dogs  west  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi where  we  would  be  poor  and  unhappy.  .  .  . 

"Father,  when  the  white  people  found  we  were  willing  to  pay  our 

1  Copied  from  the  manuscript  contained  in  the  Lasselle  Papers,  in  the  Indiana  State 
Library. 

2  Name  stated  in   manuscript  but  omitted  here.     The  Indian  Agent. 

3  The    "strong    arm"    of   a    President,    or    of   the    United    States    government,   was   an 
Indian  figure  of  speech  meaning  the  army,  or  soldiers. 

478 


A   HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

honest  debts  and  that  we  were  willing  to  appropriate  the  most  of  our 
money1  for  this  purpose  they  began  to  make  papers  [claims]  and  in  this 
way  and  upon  the  Payment  Ground,  whilst  we  were  transacting  our 
own  business  and  trying  to  do  what  was  right  and  honest,  claims  and 
papers  amounting  to  $200,000  were  made  and  pushed  in  upon  [us]  for 
immediate  payment.  .  .  .  Many  large  claims  were  urged  by  men 
from  the  River  Raisin  and  from  Detroit  and  from  Post  Vincennes  of 
twenty-five  and  thirty  years  standing.  Those  we  have  no  knowledge  of, 
believe  they  are  not  just,  and  are  not  willing  to  pay  any  such  claims. 
All  the  claims  were  paid  by  us  in  the  treaties  of  1826,  1828  and  1832, 
and  some  of  them  paid  two  or  three  times  over.  These  claimants  after 
getting  drunk  .  .  .  rushed  into  the  house  in  part  and  others  began 
to  tear  it  down,  crying  'we  will  take  the  money  by  force,'  and  in  this 
way  a  general  mob  took  place.  .  .  .  We  went  to  our  Agent  and  re- 
minded him  of  his  promise  that  he  would  protect  us  and  that  we  expected 
him  to  do  so,  that  we  had  not  done  anything  wrong  as  we  were  aware  of. 
He  spoke  like  a  man  to  us,  and  said  that  the  Great  Father  never  broke  his 
word  and  that  he  [the  Agent  |  would  protect  us  or  would  die,  us  tu  be 
quiet  and  keep  still  and  leave  the  balance  to  him.  This  speech  he  made 
to  us  through  our  friend  Ewing  ~  and  we  believed  it.  ... 

"We  then  agreed,  in  order  to  satisfy  the  white  people  that  we  wanted 
to  do  what  was  right,  that  Colonel  *  *  and  Captain  Simonton:!  might 
select  five  good  white  men  more  who  should  be  entirely  disinterested  and 
they  should  be  under  our  control,  should  help  us  pay  out  part  of  our 
money  to  our  own  people,  and  that  they  then  should  pay  out  such  sums 
on  the  different  claims  against  us  as  we  should  direct  them  to  pay,  after 
having  first  examined  the  claim  and  satisfied  ourselves  it  was  just.  To 
do  this  it  was  thought  best  to  remove  the  money  from  the  payment  ground 
to  Judge  Polk's  about  three  miles  distant.  Accordingly  five  men  were 
named  by  our  Agent,  but  he  did  not  select  good  or  honest  men,  nor  were 
they  disinterested.  . 

"Our  agent,  after  having  told  these  men  that  they  were  to  pay  out 
that  money  as  we  should  direct,  and  presuming  we  supposed  that  there 
would  be  no  further  trouble  about  it,  left  us  and  went  into  Logansport 
which  we  were  very  sorry  for.  He  had  promised  and  we  think  he 
should  have  staid  with  us  until  we  had  finished  our  business,  for  no 
sooner  had  he  left  than  those  five  men  took  full  possession  of  our  money. 
We  were  not  permitted  to  go  into  the  house  but  were  turned  out  and 
told  that  we  had  nothing  to  do  with  that  money,  that  they  were  going 
to  do  as  they  pleased  with  it  and  truly  they  did  so.  ...  They 
never  examined  one  single  claim  nor  asked  us  whether  we  did  or  did  not 

1  The    amount    received    by    the    native    nation    on    this    occasion    was    "Sixty    Throe 
TCoxes";    that   is   to    say,   $63,000.      The   accounts  against   members   of   the    tribe   which   the 
Chiefs  believed  to  be  honest  and  were  willing  to  pay  amounted  to  the  sum  of  $40.000. 

2  Ewing,  who  had  lived  among  the  Potawatomi  for  fifteen  years,  spoke  their  language. 
It  was   Kwing  who  prepared  the  manuscr  pt  letter   here  quoted. 

3  Whose  only   relation  to  the  m&tter  lay  in  the   fact   that  he  was  the  army  officer  who 
brought  the  money  and  paid  it  to  the   Indians. 

479 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

owe  certain  claimants  but  gave  it  out  thus  arbitrarily  or  kept  it  them- 
selves in  part  we  know  not  how.  Nor  will  they  even  give  us  a  list  of  the 
names  of  the  persons  to  whom  they  paid  away  our  money. 

"Father,  is  not  this  Robbery?  And  will  you  suffer  us  to  be  thus 
abused?  We  owed  honest  debts  and  were  anxious  to  pay  them,  but  we 
wanted  the  privilege  of  settling  those  debts  ourselves  .  .  .  we 
poor,  no  money  and  those  who  have  cheated  us  out  of  our  money  are 


OTYTAW&TOMIE 


143. — Examples  of  roads  built  through  Indian  territory  by  native  consent,  in 
order  that  white  men  mieht  travel  between  their  disconnected  settlements. 
Showing  the  Michigan  Road  (in  the  center)  granted  to  the  United  States 
by  the  Potawatomi  of  Indiana  by  treaty  in  1826.  The  Indians  donated 
the  land  occupied  by  the  highway  and  additional  land  whose  sale  procured 
enough  money  to  pay  for  building  the  road,  which  extended  to  the  Ohio 
River.  From  Mitchell's  "Travellers'  Guide  Through  the  United  States: 
1835." 


gone  we  know  not  where.     .      .      .     We  wanted  to  talk  to  our  Father, 
the  Agent,  but  he  left  this  morning. 

"It  is  true  we  have  no  more  lands  to  sell,  but  we  hope  our  Great 
Father  will  not  refuse  to  listen  to  his  red  children  because  they  have  no 
more  land  to  sell.  We  have  sold  all  our  country  to  you,  Father,  be- 
cause you  told  us  you  wished  us  to  do  so,  and  we  are  always  willing  to 
listen  to  your  good  counsels.  . 

"We  want  our  Great  Father  to  send  a  good  talk  to  this  frontier. 
Tell  these  bad  Indians  and  the  bad  white  people,  too,  that  they  must 
not  do  as  they  have  done  and  that  you  will  punish  them  for  the  injury 
they  have  already  done. 

480 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"Father  what  we  have  said  comes  through  our  hearts.  It  is  true 
and  we  have  nothing  more  to  say." 

A  Federal  investigation  resulted  in  this  instance,  and 
its  findings  were  printed  in  two  obscure  pamphlets  during 
the  following  year.1  Among  other  statements  made  by 
the  Commissioner  in  his  report  was  the  following: 

"The  gentlemen  who  distributed  the  money  in  1836  also  preserved 
and  delivered  to  me  most  of  the  claims  presented  to  them,  and  the  receipts 
then  given  for  the  money,  which  they  paid.  Those  papers  I  also  transmit 
herewith.  They  show  several  instances  in  which  persons  obtained  money 
in  1836  to  which  they  had  no  claim,  and  in  direct  violation  of  their  full 
acquittances  of  the  previous  year.  .  .  .  "  2 

The  report  also  said: 

"It  is  evident  from  all  this  that  these  Indians  are  fast  sinking  to  the 
most  abject  poverty,  and  when  to  this  is  added  the  habits  of  intoxication 
which  are  produced  by  their  vicinity  to  the  white  people,  we  must  be 
aware  that  their  entire  destruction  is  close  at  hand.  .  .  .  They  must 
be  removed  beyond  the  Mississippi,  out  of  reach  of  the  white  men.  .  .  . 
To  remain  among  the  white  people  must  be  certain  destruction  to  them. 
A  regulation  rendering  it  impossible  to  collect  of  an  Indian 
a  debt  of  more  than  a  year's  standing  would  save  them  from  a  load  of 
imposition.  .  .  .  They  feel,  as  one  of  the  Chiefs  expressed  it  to  me, 
'These  things  make  us  blind ;  we  cannot  see ;  do  you  see  for  us.'  ' 

Reduced  to  figures  the  Commissioner  reported  the  fol- 
lowing financial  situation  of  the  tribe: 

Total  claims  of  alleged  creditors $169,446.64 

Obviously  fraudulent  and  unsupported.  .     83,883.50 

Compelled   to   allow4 85,563.14 

Paid  out  in  cash  to  creditors 62,802.10 

Cash  left  to  Indians  out  of  $63,000 197.90 

Indians  still  in  debt 22,761.04 

To  which  he  adds  that  the  nation  had  already  paid  in 


United    States   government    imprint. 
2  Report    on   the    "Claims":    p.    5 


3  Report  on  the   "Disturbance":   p.   7. 

4  Though    he    says    many    here    included    were    probably    fraudulent.       However,    the 
account  books  of  creditors  were  produced  as  proof  of  the  debts. 

481 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL   IN   AMERICA 

cash  to  creditors  $27,022.50  in  1835  and  $41,1.50.00  in 
1836. 

Here,  then,  was  a  small  and  comparatively  insignifi- 
cant Indian  tribe1  which,  in  two  years'  time,  had  lost  all 
its  territorial  possessions,  had  paid  out  $130,974.60  in 
money,  and  still  owed  $22,761.04.  The  case  is  one  which 
illustrates  what  has  been  said,  namely,  that  in  transactions 
involving  purchases  of  territory  from  the  natives  there 
was  a  part  of  the  white  race  which  did  not  consider  the 
matter  satisfactorily  closed  until  it  had  the  land  and 
money  both.  Nor  was  the  instance,  in  its  general  fea- 
tures, an  isolated  one  either  in  the  North  or  South.  The 
methods  illuminated  by  it  had  been  in  operation  for  many 
years.  In  1830  the  Miami  nation  of  Indiana2  had  under- 
taken to  build  up  a  civilization  resembling  that  of  the 
surrounding  white  race,  and  even  appropriated  money 
out  of  the  national  fund  for  use  in  the  education  of  its 
youth.  Yet  by  1840  the  red  community  was  overwhelmed 
by  a  traders'  debt  of  $300,000.00,  was  forced  to  sell  its 
territory,  and  its  creditors  had  an  influence  sufficient  to 
cause  the  insertion  of  a  proviso  in  the  arrangements  which 
declared  that  the  sum  named  must  be  applied  at  once  "to 
the  payment  of  the  debts  of  the  tribe." 

No  satisfactory  estimate  of  the  extent  of  the  business 
carried  on  by  traders  with  the  Indians  or  set  down  in 
their  books  as  a  basis  for  future  claims  can  ever  be  possi- 
ble, but  from  the  instances  here  mentioned,  which  affected 
only  about  two  thousand  red  people  in  one  end  of  one  state, 
and  which  were  embraced  within  a  period  of  ten  years, 
it  is  apparent  that  the  similar  aggregate  dealings  through- 
out the  country  were  enormous.  They  were  a  part  of 
the  white  man's  procedure,  privately  conducted  and  gov- 

1  It  numbered  but  about  a  thousand  souls,  all  told. 

2  Neighbors  of  the  Potawatomi. 

482 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

ernmentally  tolerated,  which  had  for  its  design  the  weak- 
ening and  ousting  of  the  Indian  in  order  that  the  newer 
race  might  spread  over  the  land  without  physical  conflict. 
The  system  of  which  such  transactions  were  a  part,  and 
into  which  they  fitted,  was  a  masterpiece  of  economic, 
social  and  commercial  diplomacy  from  every  standpoint 
except  that  of  the  aborigine. 

The  original  and  most  effective  use,  in  America,  of 
the  principle  of  monopolistic  combination  and  the  sup- 
pression of  competition  as  a  means  of  acquiring  wealth 
and  economic  power,  lay  in  the  policy  pursued  by  the 
Federal  government  toward  the  Indians  for  the  purpose 
of  acquiring  native  territories.  The  white  common- 
wealths acted  as  a  combination;  objected  to  combination 
by  their  opponents;  denied  advice  to  their  adversaries; 
created  conditions  that  weakened  the  opposition;  refused 
to  permit  the  opposing  side  to  deal,  in  land  transactions, 
with  other  customers  than  themselves;  and  fixed  the 
prices  that  were  paid.  As  a  consequence  the  white 
monopoly  was  able  to  buy  hundreds  of  millions  of  acres 
of  Indian  lands  at  an  average  cost  of  about  three  and  a 
half  cents  an  acre. 

The  later  copying  of  this  governmental  example  by 
groups  of  private  individuals,  and  the  application  of  iden- 
tical practises  to  economic  phases  of  national  development 
conducted  under  private  auspices,  led  to  those  commercial 
monopolies  and  business  methods  which  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment now  characterizes  as  reprehensible  and  is  seeking 
to  abolish  under  conditions  providing  for  restitution  to  the 
injured  and  punishment  for  the  wrongdoers. 


CHAPTER   XXV 

A  STRANGE  SITUATION  IN  THE  SOUTH  —  PROBLEMS  CREATED 
BY  THREE  OVERLAPPING  AND  CONFLICTING  SOVEREIGN- 
TIES—OVERLAND COMMUNICATION  BETWEEN  NORTH 
AND  SOUTH  BLOCKED  ALONG  A  LINE  OF  SIX  HUN- 
DRED MILES  —  HEAVY  PUNISHMENT  FOR  UNLAWFUL 
TRAVEL  — THE  INDIANS  GIVE  ROADS  THROUGH 
GEORGIA,  ALABAMA,  MISSISSIPPI  AND  TENNESSEE  TO 
THE  WHITES  —  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT  DESIRES  NA- 
TIVES TO  MAINTAIN  TAVERNS  AND  FERRIES  FOR 
AUTHORIZED  TRAVELLERS  —  THE  CHEROKEE  NATION 
BECOMES  PART  OWNER  OF  A  WHITE  THOROUGHFARE 
AND  RECEIVES  MONEY  FOR  PERMITTING  UNITED 
STATES  CITIZENS  TO  JOURNEY  BETWEEN  GEORGIA  AND 
TENNESSEE  —  CAUSES  OF  THE  STRENGTH  AND  DE- 
VELOPMENT OF  THE  SOUTHERN  RED  NATIONS  —  THE 
LAW  OF  1802  AND  THE  GEORGIA  COMPACT  —  ELE- 
MENTS OF  FUTURE  TROUBLE 

THE  methods  by  which  the  white  race  secured  in  the 
South  a  right  to  travel  through  and  settle  in  that 
region  during  the  period  previous  to  the  introduction  of 
the  railroad,  and  by  which  they  also  linked  their  southern 
settlements  with  one  another  and  with  those  of  the  North 
by  overland  routes,  closely  resembled  in  some  particulars 
the  processes  just  described.  But  in  certain  other  of  its 
features,  and  also  in  some  of  the  results  which  flowed  from 
them,  the  situation  in  that  part  of  the  country  was  quite 

484 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

different  from  the  one  already  outlined.  Several  factors 
contributed  to  this  state  of  affairs.  The  white  population, 
for  one  thing,  was  smaller  than  in  the  northern  states  and 
territories,  and  the  native  nations,  though  fewer  in  num- 
ber, were  larger  and  more  powerful  both  in  population 
and  landed  possessions.  There  was  also  for  a  consider- 
able time,  less  close  intermingling  of  the  races.  This 
resulted  in  the  longer  and  more  vigorous  maintenance, 
among  the  southern  Indians,  of  those  native  qualities  of 
self-respect,  dignity,  sobriety,  home-love  and  desire  for 
self-government  that  were  imperilled  by  intimate  contact 
with  Caucasians. 

It  is  probable  that  shortly  after  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century  the  red  commonwealths  of  the  South1 
contained  an  aggregate  population  of  a  hundred  thousand 
souls  and  that  they  owned  not  far  from  a  hundred  thou- 
sand square  miles  of  territory,  or  an  area  considerably 
more  than  twice  as, large  as  that  contained  within  the 
boundaries  of  the  state  of  New  York.  These  extensive 
holdings  were  of  course  divided  into  different  tracts,  some 
of  which  were  entirely  surrounded  by  possessions  of  the 
United  States  while  others  adjoined  neighboring  Indian 
territory  on  one  or  more  sides. 

At  the  time  mentioned  and  for  years  afterward,  the 
districts  occupied  by  white  men  in  Louisiana,  in 
southern  Mississippi,  Alabama  and  Georgia,  and  also 
in  Spain's  territory  of  Florida,  were  almost  entirely  cut 
off  from  unimpeded  overland  intercourse  with  the  North' 
by  a  chain  of  Indian  nations  that  extended  westward  with 
scarcely  a  break  from  South  Carolina  to  the  farther  side 
of  Arkansas  Territory,  a  distance  of  more  than  six  hun- 

1  The  principal  native  peoples  of  that  part  of  the  continent  were  t'-en  the  Cherokees, 
Chickasaws,  Choctaws  and  Creeks.     The  Seminoles  occupied  Spanish  territory,  in  Florida. 

2  Except  by  consent  of  the  natives. 

485 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

dred  miles.1  Along  the  southern  boundaries  of  North 
Carolina  and  Tennessee,  and  extending  far  south  into 
Georgia,  Alabama  and  Mississippi,  lay  the  rich  countries 
of  the  Cherokees,  Creeks,  Chickasaws  and  Choctaws. 
These  were  then  the  most  powerful  red  peoples  within 
the  boundaries  of  the  so-called  United  States  east  of  the 
Mississippi  River.  Thsir  land  holdings  were  compact 
and  extensive;  their  population  large,  vigorous  and  intel- 
ligent. The  regions  they  owned  were  not  only  valuable, 
but  from  the  economic  standpoint  of  the  expanding  white 
race,  extremely  important.  Yet  for  a  generation  those 
tribes  clung  with  tenacity  to  their  historical  position; 
secured  in  long  established  and  undisputed  rights;  hold- 
ing no  official  dealings  with  white  men  save  through  the 
Federal  government  of  the  United  States  by  treat- 
ies.2 They  governed  themselves,  and  their  right  so  to  do 
was  acknowledged. 

These  conditions  in  themselves  presented  an  extraor- 
dinary and  grave  problem  to  the  new  white  nation,  and 
one  demanding,  for  its  final  settlement  with  mutual  honor 
and  benefit,  a  high  degree  of  statesmanship  on  both  sides. 
And  there  was  still  another  element  to  the  situation  that 
gave  it  an  even  greater  complexity.  For  the  geographical 
boundaries  of  the  four  most  important  Indian  nations  of 
the  South — as  those  limits  had  been  defined  and  guaran- 
teed by  treaties  with  the  national  government  of  the 
United  States — included,  in  each  case,  parts  of  two  or 
more  different  states  of  the  Federal  Union.  The  posses- 
sions of  the  Cherokees  embraced  undivided  and  continu- 

1  The  southern  territory  within  the  present  limits  of  the   United   States,  not  including 
Florida,    which    was    acknowledged    by    treaty    to    be    within    the    ownership    and    jurisdic- 
tion   of    Indian    nations,    originally    exceeded    in    size    the    combined    area    of    Maine,    New 
Hampshire,     Vermont,     Connecticut,     Rhode     Island,     Massachusetts,     New     Jersey     and 
Delaware. 

2  Except   in   the  technical  case   of   a   few   hundred   Indians   in   South   Carolina   who   by 
consent  of  the  Federal  government  and  natives,  treated  with  the  state  directly. 

486 


144. — Map  showing  the  overlapping  of  three  white  and  red  sovereignties  in  the 
South.  The  Chickasaw  nation,  by  treaty  with  the  United  States,  extended 
across  the  state  line  into  Alabama,  north  of  Marion  county.  The  Choctaw 
nation's  southern  boundary  penetrated  Alabama  to  the  Tombeckbe  River,  at 
a  point  north  of  Washington  county.  The  map  also  shows  The  Old  Natchez 
Road,  built  through  the  two  Indian  nations  by  their  consent;  the  Robinson 
Road,  General  Jackson's  Road,  and  other  thoroughfares  permitted  to  the 
whites  by  the  natives.  From  "Mitchell's  Map  of  Louisiana,  Mississippi  and 
Alabama,  1834." 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

ous  lands  extending  across  the  boundary  lines  that  sepa- 
rated Georgia,  Alabama,  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee, 
and  included  territory  in  all  those  commonwealths.  A 
like  condition  was  true  with  respect  to  the  Creek  nation  in 
Georgia  and  Alabama.  Further  to  the  west  the  Chicka- 
saws  and  their  southern  neighbors  the  Choctaws  owned 
about  half  of  the  state  of  Mississippi,  and  in  each  case 
their  national  possessions  and  authority  extended  east- 
ward over  contiguous  and  unseparated  districts  into 
Alabama. 

Here,  then,  were  three  apparently  overlapping  and 
conflicting  sovereignties  occupying  the  same  geographi- 
cal limits.  The  separate  white  states  acknowledged  alle- 
giance to  their  common  Federal  government.  The 
national  white  union  conducted  the  mutual  affairs  of  the 
white  states  while  at  the  same  time  it  recognized  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  red  nations,  and  defined  the  territorial 
limits  of  those  native  peoples  by  treaties  that  admitted 
their  ownership  and  control  of  lands  which  lay  within 
and  overlapped  the  theoretical  boundaries  of  white  politi- 
cal divisions.  The  Senate  approving  those  treaties  was 
composed  of  representatives  of  the  affected  Caucasian 
states.1  The  southern  white  states  among  which  lay  Indian 
nations  acknowledged  that  their  own  jurisdiction  did  not 
cover  the  native  possessions  or  peoples.  And  finally,  the 
Indian  commonwealths  neither  owed  nor  gave  allegiance 
to  local1  Caucasian  laws,  but  conducted  their  relations 
with  the  white  race  through  treaties  with  the  United 
States  and  its  accredited  national  representatives  resident 
among  them. 

Such  in  effect  was  the  situation  in  the  South  at  the  end 
of  the  long  period  during  which  the  Indians  had  resorted 

1  For  all  the  white  states  were  intimately  concerned  in  the  question  of  Indian 
possessions  and  sovereignty. 

488 


145. — Showing  the  Cherokee  and  Creek  nations  overlapping  the  boundary  be- 
tween Georgia  and  Alabama.  All  white  roads  came  to  an  end  when  they 
reached  the  Creek  country.  The  highway  through  the  Cherokee  nation 
from  Etowee  to  the  Tennessee  River  was  the  Unicoy  Road,  for  the  use  of 
which,  by  whites,  the  Cherokees  received  monetary  payments.  From  the 
same  map  as  the  preceding. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

to  warfare  as  their  chief  method  of  preventing  Caucasian 
advance  over  the  face  of  the  land.  The  strong,  ambitious, 
restless,  arrogant  and  intolerant  multitude  of  com- 
paratively late  arrivals  had  won  their  own  independence 
and  formed  a  far-spreading  political  organization.  And 
at  almost  the  outset  of  their  national  career  they  were 
confronted  by  the  fact  that  their  apparently  close-knit 
union  was  not  one  in  actuality,  and  that  their  intercourse 
and  association  with  one  another  were  in  many  localities 
impeded  by  the  conditions  here  recited.  The  Federal 
government  had  taken  a  position  concerning  the  standing 
of  the  red  nations  that  was  destined  to  interfere  seriously 
with  the  methods,  convenience,  desires  and  ambitions  of 
the  individuals  and  communities  of  which  it  was  com- 
posed. 

That  such  a  condition  contained  the  elements  of  future 
trouble  is  apparent.  The  only  way  in  which  trouble  could 
have  been  avoided  under  the  circumstances  was  through 
the  exercise  by  the  master-people  of  those  traits  of 
friendliness,  forbearance  and  good-will  which  were  so 
obviously  demanded  by  the  situation  and  by  their  own  acts 
and  pledges.  A  sincere  endeavor  based  on  those  motives 
of  human  action,  rather  than  on  hostility  and  greed, 
might  have  solved  the  problem.  Had  such  an  attempt 
been  successfully  made  the  white  race  in  this  country 
would  perhaps  for  a  time  have  remained  somewhat  less 
opulent  in  its  material  possessions,  but  it  might  also  have 
offset  the  worldly  loss  by  gaining  a  larger  store  of  that 
inward  wealth  of  honesty  and  fair  dealing  between  man 
and  man  which  was  then  overlooked,  which  has  since 
been  so  much  needed,  and  which  in  the  end  is  a  more 
secure  foundation  for  national  health,  strength  and 
wealth. 

490 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

In  view  of  the  attitude  long  held  toward  the  red  men 
in  all  parts  of  the  country  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  event 
fell  otherwise.  Trouble  did  arise  within  a  generation, 
and  before  the  crisis  was  passed  the  country  had  been 
brought  within  measurable  distance  of  disturbances 
which  would  have  amounted  to  civil  war. 

The  first  important  treaty  negotiated  by  the  United 
States  with  a  southern  Indian  nation  after  the  adoption 
of  the  Federal  Constitution  in  1789,  was  one  made  with 
the  Cherokees  in  1791.  By  that  instrument  the  natives 
ceded  a  little  land  and  granted  two  important  travel  con- 
cessions to  the  whites.  Article  V  said: 

"It  is  stipulated  and  agreed  that  the  citizens  and  inhabitants  of  the 
United  States  shall  have  a  free  and  unmolested  use  of  a  road  from  Wash- 
ington district  to  Mero  district,1  and  of  the  navigation  of  the  Tennessee 
River." 

This  treaty  was  the  outgrowth  of  a  previous  negotia- 
tion between  the  same  parties  in  1785,  which  had  de- 
clared that  a  white  intruder  on  Cherokee  territory  "shall 
forfeit  the  protection  of  the  United  States,  and  the  Indians 
may  punish  him  or  not  as  they  please."  The  violation  of 
the  compacts  of  1785  and  1791  by  whites  was  described  by 
Secretary  of  War  Knox  as  disgraceful.2  When  the  treaty 
of  1791  was  drawn  it  repeated  the  prohibition  of  white 
intrusion  into  Cherokee  territory  and  contained  a  pro- 
vision that  no  United  States  citizen  might  travel  in  the 
Cherokee  sovereignty  without  a  passport.  Nevertheless 
white  men  continued  to  enter  the  forbidden  region 
without  permission,  and  after  finding  themselves  unable 
to  keep  intruders  out  by  means  less  severe  the  Indians 
punished  invaders  by  death.  Such  methods  were 
extreme,  but  the  natives  were  within  their  treaty 

1  In  Tennessee. 

2  And  as  due  to  the  attempt  of  "white  people  to  seize  by  fraud  or  force"  the   Indian 
land. 

491 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

privilege.  They  could  fix  the  punishment.  Other 
white  men  retaliated  by  killing  friendly  Indians  without 
provocation,  and  the  red  men,  angered  by  the  way  in 
which  their  rights  were  ignored,  committed  similar 
crimes.  They  also  demanded  the  protection  of  Congress. 
The  Federal  government  attitude  at  the  time,  as  put  into 
words,  can  be  shown  by  a  communication  from  Jefferson 
to  General  Knox,  in  which  he  said: 

"Government  should  firmly  maintain  this  ground,  that  the  Indians 
have  a  right  to  the  occupation  of  their  lands  independent  of  the  States 
within  whose  chartered  lines  they  happen  to  be ;  that  until  they  cede 
them  by  treaty,  or  other  transaction  equivalent  to  treaty,  no  act  of  a 
State  can  give  a  right  to  such  lands.  .  .  .  The  Government  is 
determined  to  exert  all  its  energy  for  the  patronage  and  protection  of 
the  rights  of  the  Indians."  1 

In  actions,  however,  the  national  administrations  of 
the  period  were  not  effective  in  abating  the  troubles  com- 
plained of,  and  more  or  less  friction  was  always  existent 
on  the  Cherokee  frontier.  The  next  treaty  with  the 
Cherokees,  in  1798,  was  distinguished  by  another  travel 
concession  to  the  white  republic.  Its  seventh  article  read: 

"The  Cherokee  nation  agree  that  the  Kentucky  road,  running  be- 
tween the  Cumberland  Mountain  and  the  Cumberland  River,  where 
the  same  shall  pass  through  the  Indian  land,  shall  be  an  open  and  free 
road  for  the  use  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  in  like  manner  as 
the  road  from  Southwest  Point  to  Cumberland  River." 

Tennessee  and  Kentucky  were  the  most  thickly  popu- 
lated and  important  outlying  regions  held  by  the  whites, 
and  the  travel  privileges  already  obtained  from  the 
Cherokees,  and  here  referred  to,  had  been  for  the  pur- 
pose of  gaining  a  freer  movement  between  those  interior 
parts  and  the  East.  It  was  also  highly  desirable  that  other 

3  Previously,  and  under  the  Confederation,  the  question  of  state  rights  in  the  matter 
of  an  Indian  treaty  had  arisen  in  1785,  when  North  Carolina  fruitlessly  protested  against 
the  Cherokee  compact  as  infringing  the  legislative  rights  of  that  state.  After  1785,  for 
more  than  forty  years,  no  state  took  the  position  that  such  negotiations  were  not 
properly  a  function  of  the  Federal  Union. 

492 


146. — Selling  goods  to  the  Indians  on  credit,  under  governmental  authority,  con- 
tinued unabated.  Page  from  an  Indiana-Illinois  trader's  book  in  1829-1830. 
Amounts  set  down  in  figures.  The  Indian  was  debited  with  $54.66,  of 
which  $19.66  was  for  whisky. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

similar  routes  be  secured  which  would  permit  the  white 
people  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  to  reach  United  States 
settlements  in  Mississippi  and  other  sections  of  the  South 
by  overland  travel.  So  in  1801  two  treaties  were  nego- 
tiated with  the  powerful  Ghickasaw  and  Choctaw  nations, 
whose  possessions  obstructed  such  movement,  whereby 
the  much-needed  roads  were  obtained.  Article  I  of  the 
Chickasaw  treaty  was  as  follows: 

"The  Mingco,  principal  men  and  warriors  of  the  Chickasaw  nation 
of  Indians,  give  leave  and  permission  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States  of  America  to  lay  out,  open  and  make  a  convenient  wagon  road 
through  their  land  between  the  settlements  of  Mero  district  in  the  State 
of  Tennessee  and  those  of  Natchez  in  the  Mississippi  Territory,  in  such 
way  and  manner  as  he  may  deem  proper ;  and  the  same  shall  be  a  highway 
for  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  the  Chickasaw.  .  .  .  Pro- 
vided always  that  the  necessary  ferries  over  the  water  courses  crossed  by 
the  said  road  shall  be  held  and  deemed  to  be  the  property  of  the  Chick- 
asaw nation." 

And  article  II  of  the  Choctaw  treaty  read: 

"The  Mingos,  principal  men  and  warriors  of  the  Choctaw  nation  of 
Indians  do  hereby  give  their  free  consent  that  a  convenient  and  durable 
wagon  road  may  be  explored,  marked,  opened  and  made  under  the  or- 
ders and  instructions  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  through 
their  lands  to  commence  at  the  northern  extremity  of  the  settlement 
of  the  Mississippi  Territory,  and  to  be  extended  from  thence 
until  it  shall  strike  the  lands  claimed  by  the  Choctaw  nation;  and  the 
same  shall  be  and  continue  forever  a  highway  for  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States  and  the  Choctaws." 

In  this  way,  and  by  permission  of  the  Indians,  the 
country  obtained  a  highway  which  was  for  more  than 
thirty  years  the  principal  overland  thoroughfare  between 
North  and  South  in  the  Mississippi  vallsy.  It  came  to 
be  universally  known  as  the  "Old  Natchez  Road,"  and 
was  one  of  the  main  factors  in  populating  and  upbuilding 
the  interior,  ranking  in  importance  with  the  Cumberland 
and  Michigan  Roads.  Both  treaties  here  quoted  were 
necessary  for  its  creation,  and  it  extended  for  about  two 

494 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

hundred  miles  through  Indian  sovereignties  that  could 
not  have  been  crossed  by  white  travel  and  commerce  with- 
out it  and  the  consent  for  its  construction.  Far  indeed 
were  the  white  Americans,  during  the  period  between 
1800  and  1830,  from  right  to  go  where  they  pleased  in 
the  United  States  without  permission. 

During  the  same  year  of  1801  the  Cherokees  were 
asked  to  cede  more  land  and  permit  the  construction  of 
certain  roads  through  a  part  of  their  territory  for  the 
greater  convenience  of  white  travel,  but  they  declined  to 
grant  either  request  at  that  time.  In  the  instructions  given 
to  the  Federal  commissioners  who  then  visited  them  was 
contained  the  following  language: 

"It  is  of  importance  that  the  Indian  nations  generally  should  be  con- 
vinced of  the  certainty  in  which  they  may  at  all  times  rely  upon  the 
friendship  of  the  United  States,  and  that  the  President  will  never  aban- 
don them  or  their  children." 

The  year  1802  was  marked  by  the  passage  of  a  Fed- 
eral law  entitled  "an  act  to  regulate  trade  and  intercourse 
with  the  Indian  tribes,  and  to  preserve  peace  on  the  fron- 
tiers." This  legislation  contained  various  provisions 
recognizing  the  sovereignty  of  the  still  existing  Indian 
nations,  and  two  of  its  sections  were  afterward  destined  to 
play  a  profoundly  important  part  in  the  final  diplomatic 
contest  between  the  races.  One  of  its  articles  subjected 
United  States  citizens  to  fine  and  imprisonment  if  they 
entered  the  Indian  nations  south  of  the  Ohio  River  with- 
out Federal  passports.  Another  forbade  any  representa- 
tive of  an  individual  state  to  discuss  the  land  question 
with  natives  except  at  a  United  States  treaty  conference, 
and  in  the  presence  and  with  the  approbation  of  the  Fed- 
eral commissioner.  A  third  section  provided  that  if  an 
Indian  came  into  a  white  state  and  committed  a  crime, 

495 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

the  state  could  not  seize  him  except  in  its  own  jurisdic- 
tion. If  he  escaped  back  into  native  jurisdiction  the  state 
could  not  act,  but  an  application  for  extradition  of  the 
criminal  Indian  must  be  made  "under  the  direction  or 
instruction  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,"  and  by 
a  Federal  official.  The  Indian  nation  then  had  a  vear  to 

./ 

comply,  and  the  United  States  guaranteed  indemnity  to 
the  injured  white  person. 

But  the  two  parts  of  the  law  of  1802  which  were  later 
to  have  such  deep  effect  on  the  affairs  of  the  two  races 
were  sections  V  and  XIX.  The  first  of  these  read: 

"That  if  any  such  citizen  or  other  person  shall  make  a  settlement  on 
any  lands  belonging,  or  secured,  or  granted,  by  treaty  with  the  United 
States,  to  any  Indian  tribe,  or  shall  survey,  or  attempt  to  survey,  such 
lands  .  .  .  such  offender  shall  forfeit  a  sum  not  exceeding  one 
thousand  dollars,  and  suffer  imprisonment,  not  exceeding  twelve  months. 
And  it  shall,  moreover,  be  lawful  for  the  President  of  the  United  States 
to  take  such  measures,  and  to  employ  such  military  force  as  he  may  judge 
necessary;  to  remove  from  lands,  belonging,  or  secured  by  treaty,  as 
aforesaid,  to  any  Indian  tribe,  any  such  citizen,  or  other  person,  who  has 
made,  or  shall  hereafter  make,  or  attempt  to  make,  a  settlement  thereon." 

And  section  XIX  ran: 

"That  nothing  in  this  act  shall  be  construed  to  prevent  any  trade  or 
intercourse  with  Indians  living  on  lands  surrounded  by  settlements  of 
the  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  being  within  the  ordinary  juris- 
diction of  any  of  the  individual  states,  or  the  unmolested  use  of  a  road 
from  Washington  district  to  Mero  district,  or  to  prevent  the  citizens 
of  Tennessee  from  keeping  in  repair  the  said  road,  under  the  direction 
or  orders  of  the  governor  of  said  state,  and  of  the  navigation  of  the 
Tennessee  River,  as  reserved  and  secured  by  treaty;  nor  shall  this  act 
be  construed  to  prevent  any  person  or  persons  travelling  from  Knox- 
ville  to  Price's  settlement,  or  to  the  settlement  on  Obed's  River  (so- 
called),  provided  they  shall  travel  in  the  trace  or  path  which  is  usually 
travelled,  and  provided  the  Indians  make  no  objection;  but  if  the  In- 
dians object,  the  President  of  the  United  States  is  hereby  authorized  to 
issue  a  proclamation,  prohibiting  all  travelling  on  said  traces,  or  either 
of  them,  as  the  case  may  be,  after  which  the  penalties  of  this  act  shall 
be  incurred  by  every  person  travelling  or  being  found  on  said  traces, 
or  either  of  them,  to  which  the  prohibition  may  apply,  within  the  In- 
dian boundary,  without  a  passport." 

496 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

It  would  be  difficult  to  show  more  clearly  than  by  the 
significance  of  this  language,  the  dependence  of  the 
United  States  on  the  red  race  at  that  time  for  the  privi- 
lege of  lawful  travel  in  some  parts  of  the  country.  The 
mere  objection  of  the  Indians  to  the  use  of  certain  paths 
by  the  whites  was  a  sufficient  cause  for  the  President  to 


BATHE  OF  BAD  AXE. 


SCHLACHT  VON  BAD  AXE. 


147. — The  battle  of  Bad  Axe,  fought  on  the  Mississippi  at  the  mouth  of  Bad  Axe 
River,  in  1832.  Culmination  of  race  troubles  brought  about  by  the  entry 
of  white  men  into  the  Illinois  country.  A  steamboat  was  used  in  the  fight 
by  the  government  troops.  Many  men,  women  and  children  of  the  moving 
Indian  village,  guided  by  Black  Hawk,  were  killed.  After  a  sketch  by  the 
American  artist  Henry  Lewis. 

issue  a  public  proclamation  to  the  whole  people,  inform- 
ing them  that  if  they  ventured  on  designated  roads  with- 
out passports  they  would  be  liable  to  arrest,  fine  and 
imprisonment. 

Interesting  as  is  the  revelation  of  travel  conditions 

497 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

thus  made,  however,  the  particular  feature  of  section 
XIX,  fated  to  become  so  vital  at  a  later  date,  was  the  first 
portion  of  it,  which  discusses  the  law  in  its  relations  to 
"Indians  living  on  lands  surrounded  by  settlements  of 
the  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  being  within  the 
ordinary  jurisdiction  of  any  of  the  individual  states." 

It  is  apparent  that  we  are  here  dealing  with  a  sharp 
and  intentional  distinction  between  two  separate  and 
widely  differing  conditions  of  Indian  society.  To  one  of 
them,  and  to  the  relations  of  the  white  race  with  it,  the 
law  applied;  to  the  other  it  did  not.  If  the  difference  in 
the  two  sorts  of  native  life  was  sufficiently  pronounced  to 
render  the  same  law  applicable  to  one  and  yet  unfitted 
for  the  other,  then  that  distinction  between  them  must 
have  been  radical  indeed.  The  quesion  arises:  What  is 
the  meaning  intended  to  be  contained  in  the  language  of 
the  law? 

The  only  manner  whereby  that  part  of  native  society 
untouched  by  the  law  is  defined,  is  its  description  as 
"Indians  living  on  lands  surrounded  by  settlements  of  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  being  within  the  or- 
dinary jurisdiction  of  any  of  the  individual  states."  Now 
as  a  matter  of  fact — in  one  sense  —  all  the  Indians  in 
the  country  east  of  the  Mississippi  lived  on  lands  in  some 
degree  surrounded  by  United  States  citizens,  since  all  the 
remaining  Indian  sovereignties  were,  geographically, 
scattered  over  the  continental  area  like  plums  in  a  slice 
of  pudding.  Yet  it  is  obvious  that  the  distinct  red  na- 
tions still  owning  their  own  territories  were  not  included, 
or  intended  to  be  included,  in  the  exception  named  in  the 
law  to  which  the  act  did  not  apply,  because  regulation  of 
intercourse  between  those  native  states  and  the  whites 
was  the  purpose  of  the  act.  Those  native  sovereign- 

498 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

ties  were  still  further  removed  from  inclusion  in  the  In- 
dian society  untouched  by  the  law  through  the  fact  that 
they  framed  and  lived  under  their  own  governmental 
regulations.  In  order  that  a  group  of  Indians  might  be 
embraced  in  the  section  of  red  population  which  the 
Federal  law  of  1802  did  not  affect,  it  had  to  be  both 
surrounded  by  white  settlements  and  "within  the  ordinary 
jurisdiction  of  any  of  the  several  states." 

Congress  therefore  meant  to  describe  in  its  exception 
those  numerous  small  communities  of  red  people,  here 
and  there,  which  had  lost  all  their  national  functions  and 
vitality.1  Such  fragments  of  once  strong  tribes  had 
in  the  slow  lapse  of  time  —  and  in  nearly  every  case 
prior  to  the  organization  of  Constitutional  govern- 
ment—  given  up  their  native  rights  and  customs, 
fitted  themselves  into  their  new  surroundings  and  volun- 
tarily placed  themselves,  little  by  little,  under  the  statutes 
and  protection  of  the  white  states  in  which  they  lived.  By 
their  relinquishment  of  ancient  privileges  and  treaty  re- 
lations with  the  national  government  they  had  thus  finally 
come,  as  the  law  of  1802  described  it,  within  the  "ordi- 
nary" jurisdiction  of  the  white  people.  And,  also,  such 
little  groups  lived  within  close  and  constant  reach  of 
established  seats  of  justice  and  all  the  operating  fabric 
of  white  government,  to  which  they  might  resort  upon 
desire,  or  which  could  extend  a  hand  to  seize  them,  if 
need  be,  without  undue  exertion  or  the  creation  of  new 
machinery  or  jurisdiction  for  the  purpose. 

That,  in  short,  seems  to  have  been  the  Indian  popu- 
lation which  Congress  intended  should  be  unaffected  by 
the  operation  of  the  law  of  1802.  The  people  were  quite 

1  As  the  Shinnecocks  of  New  York,  Penobscots  of  Maine,  Narragansetts  of  Rhode 
Island,  Xanticokes  of  Maryland,  Pamunkeys  of  Virginia,  and  many  dozens  of  other  tribal 
remnants. 

499 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

familiar  with  those  natives  who  had  thus  become  vir- 
tually merged  with  white  communities,  just  as  they  also 
knew  the  large,  powerful  red  nations  who  still  governed 
themselves,  who  still  held  immense  territories  and  to 
whose  courtesy  they  were  often  indebted  for  the  privilege 
of  travelling  somewhere.  So  well  known  to  every  class  of 
white  society  and  to  government  were  the  two  elements 
of  red  population  and  the  radical  differences  between 
them,  that  their  further  identification  by  Congress  was 
probably  considered  superfluous.  Yet  on  the  interpreta- 
tion, by  one  man,  of  this  short  passage  of  forty-one  words 
was  later  to  hang  the  fate  of  a  widespread,  flourishing, 
peaceful  Indian  civilization,  and  the  destiny  of  the  red 
race. 

Still  another  event  of  the  year  1802  was  ordained  to 
figure  with  equal  prominence  in  the  eventual  downfall 
of  Indian  effort  to  build  up  a  modern  social  and  economic 
system.  Georgia,  in  that  year,  ceded  to  the  United 
States  "all  the  right,  title  and  claim"  which  she  had  in 
the  country  lying  immediately  to  the  westward.  Out  of 
the  region  thus  acquired  by  the  Federal  government  were 
soon  afterward  erected  the  territories  of  Alabama  and 
Mississippi.  The  United  States  paid  to  Georgia  a  cash 
consideration  and  also  promised  to  extinguish  Indian  title 
to  native  possessions  in  Georgia  "as  early  as  the  same  can 
be  peaceably  obtained,  on  reasonable  terms."1 

More  overland  routes  were  constantly  being  asked  of 
the  southern  red  nations,  and  by  1805  the  Cherokees  were 
again  in  an  obliging  frame  of  mind.  The  treaty  then 
negotiated  with  them  at  Tellico"  contained  this: 

"The  citizens  of  the  United  States  shall  have  the  free  and  un- 
molested use  and  enjoyment  of  the  two  following  described  roads,  in 

1  Thus   leaving   with   the    Cherokees   and   Creeks   a   right   to    determine    when,    if   ever, 
the  extinguishment   in   question    might   take   place. 

2  October  25,  1805.     Article  IV. 

500 


1.  A  spirit  of  adventurous  enterprise  :  a  willingness  to 
go  through  any  hardship  or  danger  to  accomplish  an  object. 
It  was  the  spirit  of  enterprise  which  led  to  the  settlement  of 
that  country.     The  western  people  think  nothing  of  making 
a  long  journey,   of  encountering  fatigue,  and  of  enduring 
every  species  of  hardship.  The  great  highways  of  the  West 
— its  long  rivers — are  familiar  to  very  many  of  them,  who 
have  been  led  by  trade  to  visit  remote  parts  of  the  Valley. 

2.  Independence  of  thought  and  action. — They  have  felt 
the  influence  of  this  principle  from  their  childhood.     Men 
who  can  endure  any  thing  :  that  have  lived  almost  without 
restraint,  free  as  the  mountain  air,  or  as  the  deer  and  the 
buffalo  of  their  forests — and  who  know  that  they  are  Amer- 
icans all — will  act  out  this  principle  during  the  whole  of  life. 
I  do  not  mean  that  they  have  such  an  amount  of  it  as  to 
render  them  really  regardless  alike  of  the  opinions  and  the 
feelings  of  every  one  else.     13ut  I  have  seen  many  who  have 
the  virtue  of  independence  greatly  perverted  or  degenerated, 
and  who  were  not  pleasant  members  of  a  society,  which  is 
a  state  requiring  acompromising  spirit  of  mutual  co-opera- 
tion in  all,  and  i  determination  to  bear  and  forbear. 

3.  An  apparent  roughness,   which  some   would   deem 
rudeness  of  manners. 

These  "traits  characterize,  especially,  the  agricultural 
portions  of  the  country,  and  also  in  some  degree  the  new 
towns  and  villages.     They  are  not  so  much  the  offspring  of 
ignorance  and  barbarism,  (as  some  would  suppose),  as  the 
results  of  the  circumstances  of  a  people  thrown  together  in 
a  new  country,  often  for  a  long  time  in  thin  settlements  ; 
where,  of  course,  acquaintances  for  many  miles  around  are 
soon,  of  necessity,  made  and  valued  from  few  adventitious 
causes.     Where  there  is  perfect  equality  in  a  neighbour- 
hood of  people  who  know  but  little  about  each  other's  pre- 
vious history  or  ancestry — but  where  each  is  lord  of  the 
soil  which  he  cultivates.     W7here  a  log  cabin  is  all  that  the 
best  of  families  can  expect  to  have  for  years,  and  of  course 
can  possess  few  of  the  external  decorations  which  have  so 
much  influence  in  creating  a  diversity  of  rank  in  society. 
These  circumstances,  have  laid  the  foundation  for  that 
equality  of  intercourse,  simplicity  of  manners,  want  of  defer- 
ence, want  of  reserve,  great  readiness  to  make  acquaint- 
ances, freedom  of  speech,  indisposition   to  brook  real  or 
imaginary  insults,  which  one  witnesses  among  the  p'eople 
of  the  West. 

The  character  and  manners  of  the  traders  and  merchants 
who  inhabit  the  principal  cities  and  towns  of  the  West,  do 
not  differ  greatly  from  those  of  the  same  class  in  the 
i Atlantic  states.  , 

148. — Character    and    manners    of    the    settlers    of    the    interior.     From    Baird's 
"View  of  the   Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  or  the  Emigrants'   and  Trav- 
ellers'  Guide   to   the   West";    published   in    1834:  pp.   102-103. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

addition  to  those  which  are  at  present  established  through  their  coun- 
try, one  to  proceed  from  some  convenient  place  near  the  head  of 
Stone's  River,  and  fall  into  the  Georgia  road  at  a  suitable  place  toward 
the  southern  frontier  of  the  Cherokees.  The  other  to  proceed  from  the 
neighborhood  of  Franklin,  on  Big  Harpath,  and  crossing  the  Tennessee 
at  or  near  the  Muscle  Shoals,  to  pursue  the  nearest  and  best  way  to  the 
settlements  on  the  Tombigbee." 

The  Cherokees,  at  almost  the  same  time,1  granted  per- 
mission for  the  conveyance  of  the  mails  through  their 
territory.  The  treaty  language  ran: 

"And  whereas  the  mail  of  the  United  States  is  ordered  to  be  carried 
from  Knoxville  to  New  Orleans  through  the  Cherokee,  Creek  aad 
Choctaw  countries;  the  Cherokees  agree  that  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States  shall  have,  so  far  as  it  goes  through  their  country,  the  free  and 
unmolested  use  of  a  road  leading  from  Tellico  to  Tombigbee." 

Creeks  and  Choctaws  were  equally  accommodating 
in  the  matter,  and  the  mails  went  through.  Still  later 
in  the  same  year  the  Creeks  donated  a  horse  path  to  the 
white  people.  Their  consent  read:2 

"It  is  hereby  stipulated  and  agreed,  on  the  part  of  the  Creek  nation, 
that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  shall  forever  hereafter  have 
a  right  to  a  horse  path  through  the  Creek  country,  from  the  Ocmulgee 
to  the  Mobile,  in  such  direction  as  shall,  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  be  considered  most  convenient,  and  to  clear  out  the  same,  and 
lay  logs  over  the  creeks;  and  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  shall, 
at  all  times,  have  a  right  to  pass  peaceably  on  said  path,  under  such 
regulations  and  restrictions  as  the  government  of  the  United  States 
shall,  from  time  to  time,  direct;  and  the  Creek  chiefs  will  have  boats 
kept  at  the  several  rivers  for  the  conveyance  of  men  and  horses;  and 
houses  of  entertainment  established  at  suitable  places  on  said  path  for 
the  accommodation  of  travellers.  .  .  .  " 3 

The  Choctaws,  also  in  1805,  permitted  the  establish- 
ment of  inns  for  travellers  on  some  of  the  roads  through 

1  By  Article  II   of  the  treaty   of  October  27,   1805.     Louisiana  had  been  bought  from 
the   French   and   it   was   necessary    to    have    communication    between    it   and   our    northern 
possessions. 

2  Article   II  of  the  Treaty  of  Washington;   November   14,   1805.     The   Creeks  also,   in 
the  same  treaty,  gave  permission  to  the  whites  to  navigate  the  Ocmulgee  River. 

3  A  treaty   of   1802,   held  to  name   the   limits   between   "the   United   States   of  America 
and   the   Creek   Nation   of    Indians,"    was  denned   as    having  been   agreed   to   by   "Commis- 
sioners   Plenipotentiary    of   the    United    States,    on    the    one   part,   and   the    Kings,    Chiefs, 
head  men  and  warriors  of  the  Creek   Nation." 

502 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

their  territory  whose  use  was  given  to  white  men,  and 
later  confirmed  their  concession  in  treaty  language  as 
follows:1 

"The  lease  granted  for  establishments  on  the  roads  leading  through 
the  Choctaw  country  is  hereby  confirmed  in  all  its  conditions." 

These  taverns  built  in  Indian  countries  along  roads 
whereon  whites  were  allowed  to  travel  by  international 
agreement  were  always  kept  by  business  men  among  the 
natives  themselves,  except  in  occasional  cases  wherein 
the  red  men  did  not  desire  such  proprietorship.  The  fer- 
ries, also,  were  exclusively  owned  and  operated  by  the 
Indians  of  nations  in  which  they  existed,  and  stipula- 
tions to  that  effect  were  put  into  the  treaties.  Both  inns 
and  ferries  were  operated  as  elsewhere,  and  the  charges 
for  their  service  corresponded  to  similar  rates  throughout 
the  country.  The  food  at  Indian  taverns  was  usually  ex- 
cellent and  bountiful. 

During  Jefferson's  presidency,  from  1801  to  1809, 
the  southern  red  nations  progressed  noticeably  in  their 
effort  to  build  up  a  society  based  on  the  best  principles 
employed  by  the  white  race,  and  Jefferson  actively  en- 
couraged them  in  so  doing.  In  a  communication  to  the 
Cherokees2  he  said,  "I  sincerely  wish  you  may  succeed 
in  your  laudable  endeavors  to  save  the  remnant  of  your 
nation  by  adopting  industrious  occupations,  and  a  gov- 
ernment of  regular  law.  In  this  you  may  always  rely 
on  the  counsel  and  assistance  of  the  United  States."  He 
recognized  them,  as  his  predecessors  and  the  government 
had  uniformly  done  for  twenty  years,  as  independent 
neighboring  nations.  He  continued  to  hold  treaties  with 
them,  conducted  extradition  proceedings  with  them  under 
the  law  of  1802,  and  referred  to  them  in  his  public  papers 

1  Treaty  of  November  16,  1805.     Article  VI. 

2  January  9,  1809. 

503 


as  foreign  peoples.  Extracts  from  his  annual  message  to 
Congress  in  1808,  near  the  end  of  his  last  term,  will 
illustrate  the  United  States'  attitude  on  these  points  as  ex- 
pressed by  its  Executive.  In  that  document  President 
Jefferson  said: 

"With  our  Indian  neighbors  the  public  peace  has  been  steadily 
maintained. 

"Beyond   the   Mississippi   the   loways,   the   Sacs  and   the  Alabamas 
have  delivered   up   for  trial   and   punishment   individuals   from   among 
themselves  accused   of  murdering  citizens  of  the   United   States.     On' 
this  side  of  the  Mississippi  the  Creeks  are  exerting  themselves  to  arrest 
offenders  of  the  same  kind.     . 

"Husbandry  and  household  manufacture  are  advancing  among  them 
more  rapidly  with  the  southern  than  northern  tribes,  from  circum- 
stances of  soil  and  climate,1  and  one  of  the  two  great  divisions  of  the 
Cherokee  Nation  have  now  under  consideration  to  solicit  the  citizen- 
ship of  the  United  States,  and  to  be  identified  with  us  in  laws  and  gov- 
ernment in  such  progressive  manner  as  we  shall  think  best. 

Nevertheless  he  did  not  neglect  opportunity  to  acquire 
more  territory  fr6Vn  the  Indians  when  favorable  occasion 
presented  itself.  One  of  his  messages  on  the  subject  of 
buying  lands  from  them  also  indicates  tha^Mhe  southern 
natives  were  in  some  degree  being  subjected  to  the  same 
commercial  processes  which  afterward  wrought  the  un- 
doing of  the  Potawatomi  and  many  other  of  the  north- 
ern tribes.  The  message2  states  that: 

"...  The  Choctaws,  being  indebted  to  certain  mercantile 
characters  beyond  what  could  be  discharged  by  the  ordinary  proceeds 
of  their  huntings,  and  pressed  for  payment  by  those  creditors,  proposed 
at  length  to  the  United  States  to  cede  lands  to  the  amount  of  their 
debts,  and  designated  them  in  two  different  portions  of  their  country. 
These  designations  not  at  all  suiting  us,  their  proposals  were  declined. 
Still  urged  by  their  creditors,  as  well  as  by  their  own  desire 
to  be  liberated  from  debt,  they  at  length  proposed  to  make  a  cession 
which  should  be  to  our  convenience.  .  .  .  The  cession  is  supposed 
to  contain  about  5,000,000  acres,  of  which  the  greater  part  is  said  to  be 
fit  for  cultivation,  and  no  inconsiderable  proportion  of  the  first  qual- 

1  And  also,  as  has  been   pointed  out,  because  the  southern  nations  were  in  a  better 
position   to  prevent   intimate  and  constant    intercourse   with   large   numbers   of   whites. 

2  To  the   Senate,   on  January   15,   180S. 

504 


VIEW 


VALLEY  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI, 

OR    THE 

EMIGRANT'S  AND  TRAVELLER'S 

GUIDE  TO  THE  WEST. 

CONTAINING 

A  GENERAL  DESCRIPTION  OF  THAT  ENTIRE  COUNTRY  ; 

AND  ALSO 

NOTICES  OF  THE  SOIL,  PRODUCTIONS,  RIVERS, 
AND  OTHER  CHANNELS  OF  INTERCOURSE   AND  TRADE  : 

AND  LIKEWISE  OF  THE 

CITIES  AND  TOWNS,  PROGRESS  OF  EDUCATION,  &C. 
OF  EACH  STATE  AND  TERRITORY. 


"  Westward  the  star  of  empire  takes  its  way." — BERKELEY. 


SECOND  EDITION. 


PUBLISHED  BY  H.  S.  TANNER. 
1834. 


149. — Title  page  of  the  volume  in  which  is  contained  the  text  shown  in  the 
preceding.  An  example  of  the  guide  books  published  to  acquaint  the 
eastern  people  with  conditions  in  the  Mississippi  valley  after  Black  Hawk's 
War. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

ity     .      .      .     and  the  Choctaws  and  the  creditors  are  still  anxious  for 
the  sale.     I  therefore  now  transmit  the  treaty.      .      .      ." 

The  United  States'  attitude  during  Jefferson's  admin- 
istration, and  the  President's  utterances  concerning  the 
social  and  industrial  development  of  the  Indians  had  a 
deep  effect  on  the  large  southern  nations.  Coming  as  it 
did  after  a  considerable  interval  almost  equally  favorable 
to  their  aspirations,  it  led  them  to  believe  that  the  end 
of  their  long  troubles  had  been  reached  and  passed.  With 
the  systematic  and  officially  expressed  encouragement  of 
the  white  republic  they  had  definitely  abandoned  their 
old  order  of  life,  had  settled  down  permanently  on  rich 
possessions  and  were  turning  as  rapidly  as  possible  toward 
practical  agriculture  and  the  domestic  arts  and  crafts  in 
keeping  with  their  neighbors.1  They  still  continued  their 
hunting  in  regions  where  some  game  was  left,  but  each 
year  showed  more  acres  under  cultivation,  more  manu- 
facturing, more  houses  built,  more  live  stock  in  the  pas- 
tures and  a  better  ordering  of  their  internal  affairs.  In- 
deed, so  rapidly  were  the  southern  natives  advancing  in 
civilization  and  settled  habits  in  accordance  with  declared 
governmental  desire  of  the  United  States  that  —  as  Jeffer- 
son stated  in  his  annual  message  of  1808  —  some  of  the 
Cherokees  were  already  considering  the  question  of 
abandoning  their  national  identity  provided  they  might 
merge  themselves  in  the  United  States  as  citizens. 

Several  more  years  elapsed,  unmarked  by  events  of 
consequence  save  the  steady  development  of  the  Indians. 
Then,  in  1813,  the  states  of  Tennessee  and  Georgia  felt 
pressing  need  for  a  thoroughfare  over  which  travel  and 
commerce  might  be  carried  on  between  them.  There  was 

1  The  law  of  1802  had  also  said  (section  XIII)  :  "That  in  order  to  promote  civiliza- 
tion among  the  friendly  Indian  ti  ibes,  and  to  secure  the  continuance  of  their  friendship, 
it  shall  he  lawful  for  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  cause  them  to  be  furnished 
with  useful  domestic  animals,  and  implements  of  husbandry,  and  with  goods  or  money, 
as  he  shall  think  proper  ..." 

506 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

nothing  to  do  but  appeal  to  the  Cherokees  as  usual,  for 
that  nation  lay  between  the  two  commonwealths  and  com- 
manded the  situation.  So  the  states  appointed  commission- 
ers who  met  the  red  men  by  consent  of  the  Federal 
government,1  and  an  agreement  was  concluded2  under 
whose  terms  the  necessary  road  was  brought  into  existence. 
But  this  time  the  Cherokees  demonstrated  their  advance- 
ment by  proposing  a  legally  organized  company  in  which 
they  should  have  equal  representation  with  the  whites, 
with  national  emoluments  for  the  concession,  and  so  the 
agreement  was  perforce  made  that  way.  The  official 
document  is  in  other  respects  an  unusual  one.  It  de- 
clared: 

"We,  the  undersigned,  Chiefs  and  Councillors  of  the  Cherokees, 
in  full  Council  assembled,  do  hereby  give,  grant  and  make  over  unto 
Nicholas  Byers  and  David  Russell,  who  are  agents  in  behalf  of  the 
states  of  Tennessee  and  Georgia,  full  power  and  authority  to  establish 
a  turnpike  company  to  be  composed  of  them,  the  said  Nicholas  and 
David,  Arthur  Henly,  John  Lowry  and  one  other  person  by  them  to  be 
hereafter  named  in  behalf  of  the  state  of  Georgia;  and  the  above  named 
persons  are  authorized  to  nominate  five  proper  and  fit  persons,  natives  of 
the  Cherokees,  who,  together  with  the  white  men  aforesaid,  are  to 
constitute  the  company,  which  said  company,  when  thus  established, 
are  hereby  fully  authorized  by  us  to  lay  out  and  open  a  road  from  the 
most  suitable  point  on  the  Tennessee  River,  to  be  directed  the  nearest 
and  best  way  to  ...  the  Tugolo  River,  which  said  road  . 
shall  continue  and  remain  a  free  and  public  highway,  unmolested  by 
us  ...  for  the  full  term  of  twenty  years  yet  to  come  after  the 
road  may  be  open  and  complete;  after  which  time  said  road,  with  all 
its  advantages,  shall  be  surrendered  up,  and  reverted  in,  the  Cherokee 
Nation.  .  .  .  And  the  said  Turnpike  company  do  hereby  agree  to 
pay  the  sum  of  $160  yearly  to  the  Cherokee  Nation." 

Thus  was  presented  the  spectacle  of  an  independent 
Indian  nation  becoming  part  owners  of  an  important  link 
in  the  internal  travel  system  of  the  country  and  receiv- 
ing money  for  permitting  United  States  citizens  to  go 
back  and  forth  between  Georgia  and  Tennessee.  Further- 

1  Under  the  terms  of  the  law  of  1802. 

2  The  grant  of  Highwassee  Garrison,  March  8,  1813. 

507 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

more,  if  future  events  had  not  happened  as  they  did  the 
Cherokees  would  have  become  entire  owners  of  the  thor- 
oughfare. This  turnpike  was  the  famous  Unicoy  Road, 
one  of  the  chief  routes  through  the  South  for  a  long  time. 
No  pretentions  were  made  by  Georgia,  at  this  period, 
that  her  state  boundaries  included  the  possessions  of  either 
the  Cherokee  or  Creek  nations,  or  that  her  jurisdiction 
extended  over  the  Cherokee  or  Creek  nations;  or  that 
she  could  deal  with  them  other  than  through  the  United 
States  according  to  the  provisions  of  the  law  of  1802. 
As  recently  as  181 11  she  had,  in  fact,  taken  legislative 
action  which  disclosed  her  attitude  on  those  points  and 
contained  her  acknowledgment  of  established  boundary 
lines  between  her  sovereignty  and  that  of  the  two  red 
peoples.  The  1811  resolution  of  Georgia's  legislature 
read : 

"Whereas  disputes  have  frequently  arisen  between  the  frontier 
inhabitants  of  Jackson  and  Franklin  counties  and  the  Cherokee  nation 
of  Indians,  which  might  in  a  great  measure  be  prevented  by  having 
the  Chatahuchee  River  made  the  line  between  this  state  and  the  said 
Cherokee  nation  of  Indians,  and  there  being  good  reason  to  believe 
that  the  said  Indians  on  proper  application  being  made  would  dispose  of 
said  lands. 

"Be  it  therefore  resolved,  That  his  excellency  the  governor  be,  and 
he  is  hereby  authorized  and  requested,  to  appoint  not  exceeding  three 
persons  as  commissioners  on  the  part  of  this  state,  to  make  application 
to  the  Cherokee  nation  of  Indians  through  the  agency  of  the  United 
States,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  consent  of  said  Indians  to  a 
disposition  of  the  land  lying  within  the  following  boundary,  viz. :  begin- 
ning where  the  line  between  this  state  and  the  Creek  nation  of  Indians 
leaves  the  Appalachee  River;  thence  on  the  said  line  to  where  the  same 
crosses  the  Chatahuchee  River  [here  follows  a  further  description  of  the 
boundaries  of  the  country  desired]  or  so  much  thereof  as  the  said 
nation  of  Indians  may  be  disposed  to  part  with."  : 

1  Tn  the  resolution  of  the  state  legislature  approved  November  30,  1811. 

2  Reference    to    a    proper    map    will    disclose    the    significance    of    this    statement    by 
Georgia.     The   Chatahuchee   Kiver   runs   entirely   across  the   state   in   a   southwestern   direc- 
tion,   and    Georgia's   largest    hope   at   the   time    in    question    was   to   have    that   stream    sub- 
stituted  as   the   boundary   line   in   place   of  the   one   then   existing.      A   vertical  tier   of   five 
counties,   either  in   whole,   or   in   part,   lies  directly  north  of  the   then   frontier  counties   of 
Jackson    and    Franklin;    and    that    part    of    the    Cherokee    sovereignty    lying    north    of    the 
Chatahuchee   River  in   1811   was,  in   1838,   represented  by   14   Georgia  counties  and   parts 
of  three  others. 

508 


o  j"1*  c       a 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

The  friendly  attitude  thus  shown  by  Georgia  still  ex- 
isted in  1814,  when  the  state  legislature  passed  a  resolu- 
tion1 stating  that  many  citizens  of  the  state  "have  gone  and 
frequently  are  going  over  and  settling  and  cultivating" 
the  Indian  lands,  by  which  action  "considerable  feuds  are 
engendered  between  us  and  our  friendly  neighboring  In- 
dians." The  Governor  was  requested  to  bring  about  the 
removal  of  such  intruders  and  take  proper  steps  "to  pre- 
vent future  aggressions." 

With  the  close  of  the  second  war  between  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain2  the  immigration  from  Europe 
became  decidedly  larger,  and  it  was  found  necessary  to 
place  foreigners  on  the  footing  occupied  by  American 
citizens  concerning  restrictions  of  travel  in  native  ter- 
ritories.3 Accordingly,  in  1816,  Congress  passed  a  law1 
supplementary  to  existing  legislation  and  providing  that 
no  foreign  subject  without  a  passport  might  "go  into  any 
country  which  is  allotted  to  or  secured  by  treaty"  to  the 
Indians,  on  pain  of  fine  not  exceeding  one  thousand  dol- 
lars or  a  year's  imprisonment. 

During  the  same  year  the  Cherokees  granted  to  the 
whites  the  most  extensive  travel  privileges  they  had  yet 
conceded.  This  action  was  indirectly  due  to  the  rapid 
filling  up  of  Georgia,  Alabama  and  Mississippi  then  in 
progress,  and  the  Federal  administration,  under  spur  from 
the  South,  made  an  especially  urgent  and  successful  plea 
to  the  natives.  The  red  ambassadors  were  brought  to 
Washington  for  the  negotiations,  where  they  were  treated 
with  dignity  and  attention  both  by  the  official  and  private 

1  Approved    November   19,    1814. 

2  During    this    war    the    United    States,    as    was    customary    when    she    was    in    danger, 
sought   and   obtained   the   aid  of   Indians   as   allies.      In   1814   the   instructions   of   the   War 
Department    to    General    Jackson    referred    to    the    southern    Indians    as    follows:       "The 
friendly  Indians  must  be  fed  and  paid,  and  made  to  fight  when  and  where  their  services 
may   be   required."      Numerous    Indians  did   fight   under   Jackson. 

3  The  law  of  1802  already  regulated  the  passport  question  for  United  States  citizens. 

4  Approved  April  29,   1816. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

life  of  the  capital.    Article  II  of  the  compact  contained 
the  valuable  concession  desired  and  was  thus  phrased: 

"It  is  expressly  agreed  on  the  part  of  the  Cherokee  Nation  that  the 
United  States  shall  have  the  right  to  lay  off,  open  and  have  the  free 
use  of  such  road  or  roads,  through  any  part  of  the  Cherokee  nation 
lying  north  of  the  boundary  line  now  established,  as  may  be  deemed 
necessary  for  the  free  intercourse  between  the  states  of  Tennessee  and 
Georgia  and  the  Mississippi  Territory.  And  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States  shall  freely  navigate,  and  use  as  a  highway,  all  the  rivers  and 
waters  within  the  Cherokee  Nation.  The  Cherokee  Nation  further 
agree  to  establish  and  keep  up,  on  the  roads  to  be  opened  under  the 
sanction  of  this  article,  such  ferries  and  public  houses  as  may  be  neces- 
sary for  the  accommodation  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States."  * 

In  1817  the  national  government  succeeded  in  obtain- 
ing another  small  part  of  the  Cherokee  territory, 
but  the  Cherokees  and  Creeks,  in  company  with  the 
Chickasaws  and  Choctaws,  had  no  thought  of  relinquish- 
ing all  their  possessions.  The  ceding  of  slices  now  and 
then,  and  the  granting  of  travel  permits  were  actions  taken 
partly  because  of  good  will  and  in  part  because  their  hold- 
ings were  greater  than  they  needed. 

Danger  lay  in  these  conditions  unless  the  white  repub- 
lic based  its  future  actions  on  loftier  principles  than  had 
sometimes  animated  it  in  earlier  phases  of  the  long  race 
controversy.  If  the  white  states  of  the  South  changed  their 
attitude ;  challenged  the  validity  of  the  position  held  by  the 
red  nations  under  Federal  acknowledgment  since  the  or- 
ganization of  constitutional  government;  placed  their  own 
immediate  material  profit  above  all  else  and  looked  at  the 
complex  situation  solely  from  the  white  standpoint,  then 
the  consequences  could  not  be  foreseen. 

A  blunder  had  been  made  in  1814,  through  a 
treaty  negotiated  with  the  Creek  nation.  The  Creeks  in 
that  year  ceded  a  considerable  section  of  their  holdings 

1  In  this  same  treaty  South  Carolina  was  authorized  to  arrange  for  buying  the 
Cherokee  lands  overlapping  the  boundary  of  that  state,  and  the  United  States  became  a 
surety  to  the  natives  for  South  Carolina's  payment  of  $5,000  for  the  cession. 

511 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

within  the  present  limits  of  Alabama,  and  the  action 
tended  to  move  a  part  of  the  nation  into  the  eastern  section 
of  their  territory,  at  present  embraced  in  Georgia.  The 
United  States  thereupon  guaranteed  to  them  the  integrity 
of  their  remaining  possessions.  This  pledge  was  incon- 
sistent with  the  1802  compact  with  Georgia. 

Still  another  similar  promise  by  which  the  white  re 
public  agreed  to  the  inviolability  of  a  native  nation's  ter- 
ritory was  that  given  to  the  Choctaws  in  1820.1  On  that 
occasion  the  Choctaws  ceded  part  of  their  country  in 
exchange  for  a  tract  west  of  the  Mississippi  River,  where 
such  of  them  as  wished  to  maintain  the  old  hunter's  life 
were  willing  to  go.  The  remaining  Choctaw  possessions 
were  guaranteed  to  the  nation  in  Article  IV  as  follows: 

"The  boundaries  hereby  established  between  the  Choctaw  Indians 
and  the  United  States,  on  this  side  of  the  Mississippi  River,  shall  re- 
main without  alteration  until  the  period  at  which  said  nation  shall 
become  so  civilized  and  enlightened  as  to  be  made  citizens  of  the  United 
States.  .  .  ." 

One  of  the  Commissioners  Plenipotentiary  of  the 
United  States  who  in  this  manner  indicated  that  the  Choc- 
taws were  so  advanced  in  their  methods  of  life  that  their 
prospective  status  as  citizens  of  the  Union  might  with 
propriety  be  discussed  in  a  treaty  was  General  Andrew 
Jackson.2 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  Federal  government's  pol- 
icy toward  the  southern  Indian  nations  was  not  a  consistent 
one.  While  some  of  its  manifestations  effectively  served 
to  establish  the  natives  as  permanent  and  settled  communi- 
ties, and  encouraged  them  in  civilized  endeavor,  other  of 
its  acts  had  an  opposite  tendency.  There  was  discord  of 
purpose  in  urging  and  inducing  the  red  men  to  adopt 

1  By  the  treaty  of  October  18. 

-  General  Jackson  1  ad  already  acted  in  a  similar  capacity  during  treaty  negotiations 
with  the  Cherokees  in  1816  and  1817. 

512 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

husbandry,  manufacturing,  permanent  homes  and  self- 
government  while  at  the  same  time  gradually  buying  or 
trying  to  buy  the  regions  thus  transformed  and  improved 
by  the  natives.  The  only  features  wherein  the  white  pol- 
icy had  remained  unaltered  for  the  twenty-nine  years 
between  1789  and  1818  were  in  the  recognition  of  sov- 
ereignty accorded  to  the  large  nations  of  the  South,  and  in 
the  acquirement  of  travel  routes  and  territory  from  them. 
The  first  hints  of  a  possible  change  in  the  attitude  of  the 
government  appeared  during  the  administration  of  Mon- 
roe, and  can  be  discerned  in  certain  of  his  public  papers. 
They  also  seem  to  indicate,  in  some  particulars,  either  a 
considerable  misapprehension  of  existing  conditions  or  the 
symptoms  of  a  governmental  purpose  to  foster,  in  the 
public  mind,  a  misconception  of  those  conditions. 

President  Monroe's  annual  message  of  1817  did  not 
suggest  the  new  Caucasian  position  soon  to  be  assumed.  It 
is,  however,  valuable  because  of  its  revelation  of  the  wide- 
spread extent  to  which  the  whites  were  still  dependent  on 
the  consent  of  the  red  men  for  opportunity  to  connect  their 
scattered  settlements  and  move  between  them.  A  part  of 
it  reads: 

".  .  .  By  these  purchases  the  Indian  title,  with  moderate  reserva- 
tions, has  been  extinguished  as  to  the  whole  of  the  land  within  the  limits 
of  the  State  of  Ohio,  and  to  a  part  of  that  in  the  Michigan  Territory 
and  of  the  State  of  Indiana.  From  the  Cherokee  tribe  a  tract  has  been 
purchased  in  the  State  of  Georgia  and  an  arrangement  made  by  which, 
in  exchange  for  lands  beyond  the  Mississippi,  a  great  part,  if  not  the 
whole,  of  the  land  belonging  to  that  tribe  eastward  of  that  river  in 
the  States  of  North  Carolina,  Georgia  and  Tennessee,  and  in  the  Ala- 
bama Territory,  will  soon  be  acquired.1 

"By  these  acquisitions,  and  others  that  may  reasonably  be  expected 
soon  to  follow,  we  shall  be  enabled  to  extend  our  settlements  from  the 
inhabited  parts  of  the  State  of  Ohio  along  Lake  Erie  into  the  Michigan 
Territory,  and  to  connect  our  settlements  by  degrees  through  the  State 

1  A  mistaken  opinion.  A  few  Cherokees  removed  to  the  West  in  1817,  and  another 
Jroup  followed  in  1819. 

513 


A   HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

of  Indiana  and  the  Illinois  Territory  to  that  of  Missouri.  A  similar 
and  equally  advantageous  effect  will  soon  be  produced  in  the  South 
through  the  whole  extent  of  the  states  and  territory  which  border  on 
the  waters  emptying  into  the  Mississippi  and  Mobile. 

".  .  .  The  difficulties  attending  early  emigrations1  will  be  dis- 
sipated even  in  the  most  remote  parts." 

Three  further  references  to  the  subject  by  President 
Monroe,  together  covering  a  period  of  more  than  two 
years,  are  filled  with  significant  statements  and  evidences 
of  the  misapprehension  or  new  attitude  alluded  to.  The 
first  of  these,  contained  in  his  annual  message  of  1818, 
declares: 

"To  civilize  them,  and  even  to  prevent  their  extinction,  it  seems 
to  be  indispensable  that  their  independence  as  communities  should 
cease,  and  that  the  control  of  the  United  States  over  them  should  be 
complete  and  undisputed.  The  hunter  state  will  then  be  more  easily 
abandoned,  and  recourse  will  be  had  to  the  acquisition  and  culture  of 
land  and  to  other  pursuits  tending  to  dissolve  the  ties  which  connect 
them  together  as  a  savage  community.  .  .  ." 

Aside  from  a  recognition  that  the  red  nations  still 
possessed  independence,  this  summary  of  conditions  and 
suggestion  of  future  policy  —  particularly  with  relation 
to  the  southern  natives  —  was  unfortunately  erroneous 
and  even  conflicted  with  similar  public  announcements  by 
previous  Presidents,  such  as  that  by  Jefferson  ten  years 
before.  The  very  Indian  nations  whose  independence  had 
been  most  frequently  and  elaborately  recognized — those 
of  the  South — were  the  ones  most  flourishing  and  furthest 
advanced  in  civilization.  In  those  nations  the  hunter 
state  was  already  abandoned  as  a  matter  of  definite  future 
policy,  and  played  a  small  and  constantly  decreasing  part 
in  the  life  of  the  population.  Recourse  to  the  culture  of 
land  and  other  pursuits  had  already  taken  place,  though 
the  Indians  were  much  less  concerned  in  the  acquisition 
of  more  land  than  in  the  effort  to  keep  what  they  already 

1  By  this  the  President  meant  the  travels  of  citizens  throughout  the  country. 

514 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

had.  There  were  no  indissoluble  ties  which  connected  the 
southern  red  nations  together  as  savage  communities,  but 
many  ties  that  bound  them  into  rapidly  advancing  peoples. 
Among  these  the  practises  of  husbandry,  manufacturing 
and  commerce  were  the  most  notable. 

It  was  no  longer  possible  accurately  to  discuss  the 
Indian  population  of  the  whole  continental  extent  under 
broad  generalizations  such  as  are  here  used  by  Monroe. 
Conditions  among  the  natives  were  almost  as  diverse  as 
among  the  whites.  The  Cherokees,  Choctaws  and  Chicka- 
saws  were  increasing  in  numbers  and  growing  in 
wealth  and  civilization.  They  had  successfully  adopted 
a  new  culture.  Many  other  tribes  and  nations,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  unsuccessfully  trying  to  accomplish  the 
same  result  against  odds  that  made  their  endeavor  impos- 
sible, and  still  others  were  swiftly  deteriorating  in  all  the 
respects  here  named. 

The  statement  of  Monroe,  above  quoted,  is  the  first 
official  intimation  of  a  coming  change  in  the  govern- 
ment's attitude  toward  the  red  peoples. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

FURTHER  MISTAKES  OF  MONROE  —  FIRST  OFFICIAL  SUG- 
GESTION THAT  NATIONAL  INDEPENDENCE  OF  INDIAN 
PEOPLES  IS  NOT  DESIRED  BY  THE  UNITED  STATES  —  THE 
CAUCASIAN  REPUBLIC  STANDS  AT  THE  RUBICON 
OF  POLICY  —  REFUSAL  OF  THE  CHEROKEES  TO  SELL 
MORE  LAND  AND  PROCLAMATION  OF  THEIR  FUTURE 
PROGRAM  —  CALHOUN'S  ADMISSION  —  M'KENNEY'S 
REPORT  ON  CHEROKEE  CIVILIZATION  --  FURTHER  CON- 
TEMPORARY TESTIMONY  —  J-  Q.  ADAMS  PUTS  A 
STOP  TO  PREVIOUS  METHODS  OF  TREATY  MAK- 
ING—  GEORGIA  INVADES  INDIAN  SOVEREIGNTY  - 
ADAMS'  ACTION  IN  REPLY  —  GEORGIA  THREATENS  TO 
SEIZE  NATIVE  TERRITORIES  BY  VIOLENCE  —  ADAMS 
ADMITS  THE  MORASS  OF  DIFFICULTY  IN  WHICH  THE 
COUNTRY  IS  ENMIRED 

THE  second  of  Monroe's  three  statements  heretofore 
alluded  to  was  one  contained  in  the  President's 
message  of  November  14,  1820.  It  ran:  ".  .  .  Left  to  them- 
selves their  extirpation  is  inevitable.  By  a  judicious  regu- 
lation of  our  trade  with  them  we  supply  their  wants,  ad- 
minister to  their  comforts,  and  gradually,  as  the  game  re- 
tires, draw  them  to  us." 

The  archives  of  the  government  contained  a 
mass  of  reports,  treaties  and  other  evidences  testifying 
to  the  contrary.1  When  left  to  themselves  or  when  in 

1  The  most  recent  of  which  was  an  elaborate  review  of  the  conditions  of  Indian 
society  made  by  Jedediah  Morse  under  commission  by  the  President  dated  February  7, 
1820.  Extracts  from  Morse's  statements  respecting  native  civilization  of  the  period  are 
contained  in  an  Appendix. 

516 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

association  with  non-parasitical  whites,  the  natives  did 
well.  It  was  when  they  were  not  left  to  themselves,  but 
compelled  against  their  desire  closely  and  constantly  to 
mingle  with  the  unscrupulous  white  population  which 
hovered  about  them  like  vultures,  that  they  failed  to  do 
well.  So  excellently  did  they  progress  when  able  to  pro- 
tect themselves  from  excessive  spoliation  that  President 
Monroe's  Commissioner  Plenipotentiary,  General  An- 
drew Jackson,  had  anticipated  United  States  citizenship 
for  an  entire  red  nation  only  twenty-seven  days  before  the 
President  made  the  foregoing  statement.1  The  nature  and 
deplorable  results  of  the  trade  permitted  with  the  natives 
have  been  discussed.  It  did  not  administer  to  their  com- 
forts but  added  to  their  troubles.  Judicious  regulation  of 
that  trade  was  not  a  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the 
government's  attitude.  Instead  of  being  drawn  closer  to 
the  whites  as  the  game  retired,  the  natives  were  as  a  rule 
despoiled  to  whatever  extent  was  possible  and  thrust  fur- 
ther away.  The  most  notable  exceptions  to  this  rule,  at  the 
time,  were  to  be  found  in  the  nations  of  the  South,  which 
still  insisted  on  maintaining  their  independence  unless 
their  inhabitants  were  made  citizens  of  the  United  States. 

The  third  of  the  three  statements  by  Monroe  indicating 
a  changing  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  government  was 
made  in  his  second  inaugural  address,  on  March  5,  1821. 
It  contained  the  first  unequivocal  declaration  that  national 
independence  of  Indian  peoples  was  not  desired  by  the 
United  States.  The  utterance  was: 

"The  care  of  the  Indian  tribes  within  our  limits  has  long  been  an 
essential  part  of  our  system,  but,  unfortunately,  it  has  not  been  exe- 
cuted in  a  manner  to  accomplish  all  the  objects  intended  by  it.  We 
have  treated  them  as  independent  nations,  without  their  having  any 
substantial  pretentions  to  that  rank.  The  distinction  has  flattered  their 

1  The  Choctaws.  The  treaty  with  them  negotiated  by  Jackson  was  dated,  as  has 
been  said,  on  October  18,  1820,  and  Monroe's  message  was  dated  November  14. 

517 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

pride,  retarded  their  improvement,  and  in  many  cases  paved  the  way 
to  their  destruction.  Their  sovereignty  over  vast  territories  should 
cease." 

The  President  did  not  state  what  were  the  objects 
intended  to  be  accomplished  by  our  dealings  and  rela- 
tions with  the  natives.  If  those  objects  were,  as  often 
declared  in  words,1  a  genuine  and  unselfish  desire  to 


151. — Development  of  the  stage-coach  from  the  Flying  Machine  and  Stage 
Wagon.  A  New  England  coach  of  1815-1820.  Heaviest  of  all  American 
vehicles  of  the  sort,  and  built  with  especial  thought  for  the  comfort  of 
passengers  in  cold  weather.  This  and  the  twenty-seven  illustrations  to  No. 
178,  inclusive,  concern  the  evolution  of  the  stage-coach  and  incidents  of  its 
use,  between  New  England  and  the  Mississippi  River,  from  1815  to  about 
1850. 

aid  the  red  population  in  attaining  civilization  and  a 
manner  of  life  similar  to  that  of  the  Caucasians, 
then  those  purposes  had  thus  far  only  failed  when 
the  government,  by  its  discordant  or  lax  methods, 
had  neglected  to  protect  the  Indians  from  its  own  citizens 
and  had  indirectly  interrupted  their  upward  progress  by 
buying  their  lands.  Plentiful  evidences  existed  that  in 

1  As  recently  as  March  3,  1819,  President  Monroe  had  approved  an  act  of  Congress 
authorizing  the  President  to  send  among  the  Indians  instructors  in  agriculture  and  the 
ordinary  branches  of  education,  as  a  means  of  "providing  against  the  further  decline" 
of  the  natives  and  of  "introducing  among  them  the  habits  and  arts  of  civilization." 

518 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

cases  wherein  those  impediments  to  development  did  not 
unduly  occur  the  native  population  responded  to  the 
impulse  in  question,  no  matter  from  what  quarter  it  came. 
Consequently  it  was  only  necessary  to  eliminate  those 
retarding  conditions  in  order  to  achieve  success,  pro- 
vided that  was  really  the  national  object,  left  unexplained 
by  President  Monroe.  The  situation  as  then  visible  in  the 
South — where  the  most  conspicuous  examples  of  the 
national  white  policy  were  existent — did  not  warrant  a 
statement  that  the  plan  of  treating  the  red  peoples  as  inde- 
pendent nations  had  retarded  their  improvement  or  paved 
the  way  to  their  destruction.  So  if  their  impending  de- 
struction was  in  truth  visible  then  its  cause  must  also  have 
been  visible,  and  must  have  been  discovered  in  some  factor 
of  the  problem  not  inherent  in  the  new  red  civilization 
itself. 

But  if  the  principal  and  underlying  purpose  of  the 
Republic  had  been,  and  still  was,  the  easy  capture  of  the 
territorial  possessions  of  the  Indians,  then  it  was  true, 
as  Monroe  said,  that  the  government's  system  had  not 
been  carried  out  in  a  manner  to  accomplish  all  the  ob- 
jects intended  by  it.  The  remaining  important  red  na- 
tions were  visibly  entering  into  the  realm  of  civic  pride 
and  a  social  state  similar  to  that  of  the  whites,  and  had 
announced  a  determination  to  ssll  no  more  land.  Hence 
if  the  acquisition  of  their  countries  was  the  main  ob- 
ject of  the  white  nation,  that  desire  had  apparently  been 
thwarted  through  a  concrete  realization  by  the  Indians 
of  the  condition  toward  which  they  had  been  thought- 
lessly encouraged.  Such  a  theory  would  perhaps  explain 
the  altered  position  which  the  United  States  was  ob- 
viously taking  and  whose  symptoms  first  became  visible 
during  the  Monroe  presidency.  Flattery,  cajolery,  small 

519 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

monetary  payments  and  large  promises  no  longer  wrought 
their  magic  as  of  old.  The  red  men  of  the  South  were 
becoming  nations  of  settled  farmers,  merchants,  inn-keep- 
ers and  small  manufacturers,  with  schools,  councils,  legis- 
latures, laws  and  judges  of  their  own,  and  had  their  eyes 
on  Federal  citizenship.  The  Caucasian  republic  stood  at 
last  beside  a  Rubicon  of  policy.  It  had  either  to  prove 
the  sincerity  of  its  former  protestations  by  endorsing  the 
native  progress  and  unselfishly  perpetuating  it,  even  at 
worldly  expense  and  inconvenience  to  itself  for  a  time,  or 
else  adopt  some  other  course  of  action  that  would  disclose 
another  purpose. 

It  was  at  such  a  time  that  President  Monroe  said: 
"Their  sovereignty  over  vast  territories  should  cease." 
The  inhabitants  of  the  southern  states  had  become  restive 
as  they  gazed  toward  the  rich  countries  of  Cherokee, 
Creek,  Chickasaw  and  Choctaw,  and  two  years  before,  in 
1819,  Georgia  had  begun  a  series  of  protests  addressed  to 
the  Union  in  relation  to  the  still  unfulfilled  obligation 
incurred  by  the  United  States  in  the  agreement  of  1802. 
From  that  time  on  events  moved  steadily  toward  the  final 
catastrophe. 

Early  in  18241  Monroe,  being  under  a  constantly  in- 
creasing pressure  from  the  South  and  especially  from 
Georgia,2  sent  an  urgent  message  to  the  Cherokee  nation 
begging  its  people  to  sell  their  country  and  remove  west  of 
the  Mississippi.  The  nation  refused.  Its  answer  con- 
tained these  passages: 

".  .  .  We  assert  under  the  fullest  authority  that  all  the  senti- 
ments expressed  in  relation  to  the  disposition  and  determination  of  the 
nation  never  to  cede  another  foot  of  land  are  positively  the  product 
and  voice  of  the  nation.  .  .  .  They  have  unequivocally  determined 

1  January    30th. 

-  Which    state    was    now    insistently    calling   for    an    extinguishment    of    Cherokee    and 
Creek  titles. 

520 


CONTAINING    AN   ACCOUNT  OF 

ALL  THE  GREAT  POST  ROADS, 

AND 

MOST  IMPORTANT  CROSS  ROADS, 


Starts, 


WASHINGTON  CITY  TO  THE  SEVERAL  EXTREMITIES 
OF  THE  UNION;  AND  FROM  THE 

-    LARGE  ClTJiJEl  AJND  STATE  CAPITALS, 

TO 

TOWNS    AND    INTERESTING    PLACES    IN    VARIOUS 
DIRECTIONS, 

WITH 

DESCRIPTIONS   OF   THE   COUNTRY   AND  VARIOUS  SCENERY  WHICH 
THOSE   ROADS    PASS   THROUGH  : 

'Some  of  the  principal  Lines  of  Stages,  Steam-boats,  and  Packets; 
Statements  at  large  of  some  of  the  raost  Respectable  Hotels, 
Genteel  BoareJiug  Houses,  Establishments,  and  Institutions,  in 
the  large  'Cities,  at  the  Springs,  and  Places  of  Fashionable 
Resort. 

A  GEOGRAPHICAL  AND  STATISTICAL  VIEW 

OF   THE 

UNITED  STATES; 

WITH  INFORMATION    ON    OTHER  SUBJECTS  INTEREST!!^ 
TO  TRAVELLERS. 


BY  D.  HEWETT,  A.  M. 

Lecturer  on  Geography. 


BY   DAVIS   Si  FORCE,  (FRANKLIN  S  HZA» 
IA    AVENUS. 


152. — Early  literature  relating  to  travel  in  America.  Title  page  of  Hewett's 
Directory  of  Post  Roads.  First  guide  book  of  national  scope  issued  for  the 
benefit  of  stage-coach  travellers,  and  first  comprehensive  printed  list  of 
United  States  roads. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

never  again  to  pursue  the  chase  as  heretofore,  or  to  engage  in  wars,  un- 
less by  the  common  call  of  the  government  to  defend  the  common  rights 
of  the  United  States.  .  .  . 

"The  Cherokees  have  turned  their  attention  to  the  pursuits  of  the 
civilized  man;  agriculture,  manufactures,  and  the  mechanic  arts  and 
education  are  all  in  successful  operation  in  the  nation  at  this  time;  and 
while  the  Cherokees  are  peacefully  endeavoring  to  enjoy  the  blessings 
of  civilization  and  Christianity  on  the  soil  of  their  rightful  inheritance, 
and  while  the  exertions  and  labors  of  various  religious  societies  of  these 
United  States  are  successfully  engaged  in  promulgating  to  them  the 
words  of  truth  and  life  from  the  sacred  volume  of  Holy  Writ,  and 
under  the  patronage  of  the  general  government,  they  are  threatened 
with  removal  or  extinction.  . 

"We  appeal  to  the  magnanimity  of  the  American  Congress  for 
justice,  and  the  protection  of  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  Cherokee 
people.  We  claim  it  from  the  United  States  by  the  strongest  obligation 
which  imposes  it  on  them — by  treaties;  and  we  expect  it  from  them 
under  that  memorable  declaration  'that  all  men  are  created  equal; 
that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights; 
that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.'  " 

The  President,  in  a  special  message  to  Congress1  in- 
formed that  body  of  the  result  of  his  appeal,  saying: 

".  .  .  By  this  it  is  manifest  that  at  the  present  time  and  in 
their  present  temper  they  can  be  removed  only  by  force. 

"I  have  no  hesitation,  however,  to  declare  it  as  my  opinion  that 
the  Indian  title  was  not  affected  in  the  slightest  circumstance  by  the 
compact  with  Georgia,  and  that  there  is  no  obligation  on  the  United 
States  to  remove  the  Indians  by  force.  The  express  stipulation  of  the 
compact  that  their  title  should  be  extinguished  at  the  expense  of  the 
United  States  when  it  may  be  done  peaceably  and  on  reasonable  condi- 
tions is  a  full  proof  that  it  was  the  clear  and  distinct  understanding  of 
both  parties  to  it  that  the  Indians  had  a  right  to  the  territory,  in  the 
disposal  of  which  they  were  to  be  regarded  as  free  agents." 

Monroe  nevertheless  continued  his  diplomatic  attempts 
to  clear  the  southern  country  east  of  the  Mississippi  of  the 
native  races  there  established,  and  later  in  1824  he  called 
on  John  C.  Calhoun,  his  then  Secretary  of  War,  for  a  re- 
port describing  the  condition  of  those  peoples.  In  answer 
to  this  request  Secretary  Calhoun  said  to  the  President:2 

".      .      .     Almost  all  of  the  tribes  proposed  to  be  affected  by  the 


1  On  March  30,  1824. 

2  In  his  report  dated  January  24,  1825. 


522 


,-r  tht  coryrn  Y 
round 


SPr^C- 


^     ^ 


j 

153. — Map   of  overland    highways   leading   to   Pittsburgh   in    1812.     The   town 

could  then  be  reached  by  one  wagon  road  from  the  north,  four  from 

the  east,  two  from  the  south  and  one  from  the  west. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

arrangement  are  more  or  less  advanced  in  the  arts  of  civilized  life.  .  .  . 
One  of  the  greatest  evils  to  which  they  are  subject  is  that  incessant 
pressure  of  our  population,  which  forces  them  from  seat  to  seat,  with- 
out allowing  time  for  that  moral  and  intellectual  improvement  for 
which  they  appear  to  be  naturally  eminently  susceptible." 

There  fortunately  exists  a  contemporary  record 
whereon  dependence  may  be  placed  that  carefully  describes 
the  most  extreme  extent  to  which  civilization  had  pro- 
gressed among  the  southern  Indian  nations  at  the  precise 
period  under  consideration.  Happily,  also,  it  deals  with 
the  Cherokees,  whose  affairs  had  already  begun  to  attract 
so  large  a  measure  of  attention  throughout  the  country. 
The  description  referred  to  is  a  report  made  by  Commis- 
sioner of  Indian  Affairs  Thomas  L.  McKenney  to  Secre- 
tary of  War  Barbour1  under  date  of  December  13,  1825, 
and  reads: 

"The  Cherokees  on  this  side  the  Mississippi  are  in  advance  of  all 
other  tribes.  They  may  be  considered  as  a  civilized  people. 
It  is  truth  we  are  in  quest  of,  and  facts  are  the  best  instruments  for  its 
development.  Theory,  and  all  previously  conceived  opinions  which  are 
adverse  to  Indian  capacity  and  Indian  improvement  must  give  way  to 
the  stubborn  demonstrations  of  such  facts  as  David  Brown  discloses, 
even  if  there  were  no  others;  but  there  are  many  such." 

The  David  Brown  mentioned  by  McKenney  was  a 
citizen  of  the  Cherokee  nation  who  had  recently  pub- 
lished an  article2  descriptive  of  his  country  and  its  prog- 
ress. McKenney,  being  able  of  his  own  knowledge3  to 
endorse  Brown's  account  as  one  of  fact,  which  he  did  in 
connection  with  the  comment  that  there  were  many  other 
similar  facts  not  recorded  by  Brown,  felt  that  he  could 
in  no  better  way  reveal  Cherokee  conditions  than  by  using 
a  red  man's  own  statement  concerning  those  conditions. 

1  At  the  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War  on  October  3,  1825,  calling  for  information  on 
the  effects   "of  the   present  system   for   civilizing  the   Indians." 

2  In   the   "Family   Visitor"   of   Richmond,   Va.,   on   September   2,    1825. 

3  McKenney's   studies   of   Indians   extended   over   many   years   and   were   made   at   first 
hand  among  numerous   tribes.      He   lived   among  them   in   their  own    manner.      His  works 
On  the  subject  are  well  known. 

524 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

This  he  accordingly  did,  incorporating  into  and  making  a 
part  of  his  own  report  the  following  paragraphs  by 
B  rown : 

".  .  .  These  plains  furnish  immense  pasturage,  and  number- 
less herds  of  cattle  are  dispersed  over  them ;  horses  are  plenty,  numerous 
flocks  of  sheep,  goats  and  swine  cover  the  valleys  and  the  hills.  On 
Tennessee,  Ustanula  and  Canasagi  rivers  Cherokee  commerce  floats. 
The  climate  is  delicious  and  healthy ;  the  winters  are  mild ;  the  spring 
clothes  the  ground  with  the  richest  scenery,  flowers  of  exquisite  beauty 
and  variegated  hues  meet  and  fascinate  the  eye  in  every  direction.  In 
the  plains  and  valleys  the  soil  is  generally  rich,  producing  Indian  corn, 
cotton,  tobacco,  wheat,  oats,  indigo,  and  sweet  and  Irish  potatoes. 

"The  natives  carry  on  considerable  trade  with  the  adjoining  states; 
some  of  them  export  cotton  in  boats  down  the  Tennessee  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  down  that  river  to  New  Orleans.  Apple  and  peach  or- 
chards are  quite  common,  and  gardens  are  cultivated,  and  much  at- 
tention paid  to  them.  Butter  and  cheese  are  seen  on  Cherokee  tables. 
There  are  many  public  roads  in  the  nation,1  and  houses  of  entertain- 
ment kept  by  natives.  Numerous  and  flourishing  villages  are  seen 
in  every  section  of  the  country.  Cotton  and  woolen  cloths  are  manu- 
factured ;  blankets  of  various  dimensions,  manufactured  by  Cherokee 
hands,  are  very  common.  Almost  every  family  in  the  nation  grows 
cotton  for  its  own  consumption. 

"Industry  and  commercial  enterprise  are  extending  themselves  in 
every  part.  Nearly  all  the  merchants  in  the  nation  are  native  Chero- 
kees.  Agricultural  pursuits  engage  the  chief  attention  of  the  people. 
Different  branches  in  mechanics  are  pursued. 

"White  men  in  the  nation  enjoy  all  the  immunities  and  privileges  of 
the  Cherokee  people,  except  that  they  are  not  eligible  to  public  offices. 
.  .  .  The  Christian  religion  is  the  religion  of  the  nation.  .  .  .  The 
whole  nation  is  penetrated  with  gratitude  for  the  aid  it  has  received 
from  the  United  States  Government.  .  .  .  Schools  are  increasing 
every  year ;  learning  is  encouraged  and  rewarded ;  the  young  acquire  the 
English,  and  those  of  mature  age  the  Cherokee  system  of  learning.  .  .  . 
We  are  out  of  debt,  and  our  public  revenue  is  in  a  flourishing  condition. 
Besides  the  amount  arising  from  imports,  perpetual  annuity  is  due  from 
the  United  States  in  consideration  of  lands  ceded  in  former  periods. 

"Our  system  of  Government,  founded  on  republican  principles  by 
which  justice  is  equally  distributed,  secures  the  respect  of  the  people. 
New  Town,  pleasantly  situated  in  the  center  of  the  Nation, 
is  the  seat  of  government.    The  legislative  power  is  vested  in  a  national 
committee  and  council.     ...  In  New  Town  a  printing  press 

is  soon  to  be  established ;  also  a  national  library  and  museum." 

1  Of  their  own  as  well  as  those  on  which  whites  were  permitted  to  travel. 

525 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

The  printing  establishment  mentioned  by  McKenney 
was  soon  afterward  set  up.  It  was  the  property  of  the 
nation,  and  the  work  in  connection  with  its  operation  was 
done  in  part  by  native  editors,  writers,  translators,  type- 
setters, printers,  bookbinders  and  other  craftsmen.  From 
it  issued  hymn  books,  gospels  and  various  other  volumes 
in  the  native  language,  and  a  newspaper  in  both  the  Chero- 
kee language  and  in  English.1  The  Cherokee  tongue  had 
been  reduced  to  a  written  and  printed  alphabet,  also  by  a 
member  of  the  nation,2  as  early  as  1820,  and  the  national 
Cherokee  legislature  had  in  1823  conferred  on  him  a 
medal  for  eminent  public  services.  The  affairs  of  the 
nation  were  carried  on  under  a  constitution  shaped  some- 
what after  that  of  the  United  States.  Officials  held  office 
by  popular  election.  A  moderate  system  of  taxation  was 
in  operation  and  the  public  funds  were  carefully  admin- 
istered. Crime  was  practically  non-existent. 

These  demonstrations  of  native  advancement,  together 
with  the  conditions  catalogued  by  McKenney,  had  ap- 
peared during  the  period  of  thirty-nine  years  following  the 
adoption  of  constitutional  government  by  the  United 
States.  The  social  and  economic  development  shown  in 
that  interval  by  the  Cherokees  compared  favorably  with 
the  progress  accomplished  by  the  earliest  English  settlers 
in  New  England  during  an  even  longer  time.  The  first 
white  colonists  landed  in  Massachusetts  in  1620,  and  sev- 
enty-two years  later  the  communities  they  founded  pos- 

1It  was  a  four-page  weekly  paper  called  the  "Cherokee  Phoenix,"  and  was  first  pub- 
lished on  February  21,  1828,  continuing  to  appear  at  the  Cherokee  capital  until  May •  ot 
1834.  Each  issue  contained  several  columns  in  each  of  the  two  languages.  Partial  tiles 
of  this,  the  first  Indian  newspaper,  are  contained  in  the  collections  of  the  British  Museum, 
the  New  York  City  Library  and  the  Boston  Atheneum.  Occasional  copies  are  also 
owned  by  Wilberforce  Eames,  Esq.,  of  New  York;  by  W.  J.  De  Renne,  Esq.,  of  Atlanta, 
and  perhaps  by  a  few  other  collectors.  The  editor  of  the  "Phoenix"  was  Elias  Boudtnot, 
an  Indian,  whose  parents  could  not  speak  English.  . 

The  state  papers  of  the  Cherokees,  and  the  editorial  discussion  of  Indian  affairs 
contained  in  the  columns  of  the  "Phoenix"  from  1828  to  1834  are  worthy  of  comparison 
with  similar  United  States  productions  during  the  same  period.  An  example  ot  the  native 
messages  referred  to  is  given  in  an  Appendix. 

2  George  Guess,  whose  native  name  was  Sequoyah. 

526 


k**^zllNy*  _y   n 


154. — Map  of  the  travel  and  transportation  facilities  in  the  vicinity  of  New 
York  City  in  1826.  The  city  and  bay  were  touched  by  seventeen  roads. 
From  Melish's  map,  published  in  some  copies  of  the  second  edition  of 
Goodrich's  Northern  Traveller:  1826- 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

sessed  scarcely  more  than  an  outward  semblance  of  real 
self-government.  They  were  still  substantially  under  the 
rule  of  a  theocracy  that  was  torturing  or  mutilating  the  cit- 
izens of  both  sexes  and  sometimes  burning  them  to  death.1 

The  Chickasaw,  Choctaw  and  Creek  nations  had  not 
displayed  all  of  the  exceptional  qualities  manifested  by 
the  Cherokees,  but  their  development  had  nevertheless 
been  correspondingly  rapid.  They,  likewise,  had  herds 
and  cultivated  acres,  some  comfortable  houses,  a  little 
commerce,  domestic  manufacturing,  schools  and  ambition. 
The  principal  matter  respecting  which  they  were  less  swift 
in  advancement  was  that  of  altering  their  machinery  of 
self-government.  Their  systems,  though  effective,  still 
clung  much  more  closely  to  traditional  methods  and  suf- 
frage was  more  restricted. 

Meanwhile  President  Monroe  had  advanced  a  further 
opinion2  regarding  the  question  of  national  attitude  to- 
ward the  Indian  problem.  It  upheld  native  rights,  yet  in 
some  features  manifested  a  relapse  toward  that  non-com- 
prehension of  the  subject  revealed  in  some  of  his  earlier 
utterances,  and  also  failed  of  clearness  on  an  important 
point.  He  said: 

".  .  .  Experience  has  shown  that  unless  the  tribes  be  civilized 
they  can  never  be  incorporated  into  our  system  in  any  form  whatever, 
.  .  .  Their  civilization  is  indispensable  to  their  safety.  .  .  . 

1  In  1692  trials  or  executions  for  witchcraft  had  been  taking  place  in  New  England 
for  more  than  forty  years.  This  comparison  is  in  a  certain  respect,  however,  unfair  to 


which  McKenney  characterized  as  "Indian  capacity." 


to  make  the  transposition  unfair. 


A   HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"Difficulties  of  the  most  serious  character  present  themselves  to 
the  attainment  of  this  very  desirable  result  on  the  territory  on  which 
they  now  reside.  To  remove  them  from  it  by  force,  even  with  a  view 
to  their  own  security  and  happiness  would  be  revolting  to  humanity 
and  utterly  unjustifiable.  .  .  ." 

Instead  of  civilization  being  a  condition  indispensable 
to  the  safety  of  the  red  peoples  it  was  beginning  to  look  as 
if  their  civilization,  wherever  attained,  subjected  them  to 
a  danger  no  less  extreme  than  any  they  had  previously  un- 
dergone. The  four  biggest  nations  already  revealed  a 
state  of  society  presenting  more  stability,  quiet,  thrift  and 
wealth  than  might  be  shown  by  many  frontier  Caucasian 
communities.  Two  of  them1  had  been  discussing  the  ques- 
tion of  American  citizenship  with  the  United  States  for 
years,  and  President  Monroe  had  himself  negotiated  a 
treaty  with  one2  guaranteeing  the  permanence  of  its  exist- 
ing possessions  until  the  members  of  the  nation  were  made 
citizens.  Now,  four  years  afterward,  he  found  himself  to 
be  of  opinion  that  difficulties  of  the  most  serious  charac- 
ter interfered  with  the  attainment  of  native  civilization  on 
the  territory  where  they  were  then  residing,  even  though 
that  territory  was  their  own.  He  overlooked  the  evidences 
that  several  of  the  red  peoples  had  already  substantially 
reached  that  state  of  society,  and  that  they  could  assuredly 
proceed  more  easily  toward  the  visible  goal3  in  their  long 
established  homes  than  elsewhere,  unless  prevented  by  in- 
jurious outside  influences  from  so  doing.  If  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  Indians  was  really  the  main  desire  of  the  gov- 
ernment in  its  relations  with  them,  then  no  shifting  of  them 
could  be  of  advantage,  since  that  act  would  only  be  trans- 
ferring the  process  to  another  and  less  favorable  locality, 

1  The   Cherokees  and   Choctaws. 

2  The  Choctaws. 

3  The   degree   of   development   which   the    United    States    government   was   insisting   on 
before  awarding  citizenship. 

529 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"     


155. — Type  of  stage-coach  most  widely  used  throughout  the  country  from  1815 
to  1825.  Its  body,  built  of  wood  and  sole-leather,  was  shaped  somewhat  like 
a  football,  and  was  swung  on  many  thick  strips  of  leather  riveted  together 
and  called  thorough-braces.  Capacity,  either  six  or  nine  passengers  inside. 
Commonly  drawn  by  four  horses.  From  a  drawing  made  by  Captain  Hall 
of  the  British  Navy  in  1825. 

with  loss  of  years  and  material  gain  as  well  as  probable 
loss  of  native  courage.  The  one  decisive  element  to  be 
dealt  with  in  any  honest  and  unselfish  effort  for  Indian 
welfare  had  long  since  been  seen  to  be  'the  manner  and 
purpose  of  Caucasian  contact  with  the  red  people,  and  that 
element  could  not  be  dodged.  Two  centuries  of  experi- 
ence had  afforded  ample  demonstration  of  the  point.  Post- 
ponement of  a  problem  does  not  accomplish  its  solution. 
The  secret  of  a  successful  endeavor  to  protect  and  aid  the 
natives  lay  then,  as  it  had  always  done,  in  regulating  that 
part  of  the  white  population  which  sought  to  prey  upon 
them. 

Monroe  did  not  explain  the  nature  of  the  serious  dif- 
ficulties whose  existence  he  so  unequivocally  asserted. 
They  did  not  abide  in  any  quality  or  methods  of  the  In- 
dians, and  soon  became  visible  to  all  men. 

530 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

President  J.  Q.  Adams  took  office  on  March  4,  1825,1 
and  his  first  encounter  with  the  questions  under  review  had 
to  do  with  a  treaty  negotiated  by  the  previous  administra- 
tion2 with  the  Creek  nation.  By  its  terms  the  Creeks  ap- 
parently ceded  their  territories  embraced  in  the  modern 
area  of  Georgia.  In  discussing  this  transaction  in  a  special 
message  to  the  Senate3  President  Adams  used  the  follow- 
ing language: 

"I  do  not  deem  it  necessary  to  decide  upon  the  propriety  of  the 
manner  in  which  it  was  negotiated.  Deeply  regretting  the  criminations 
and  recriminations  to  which  these  events  have  given  rise,  I  believe  the 
public  interest  will  best  be  consulted  by  discarding  them  altogether  from 
the  discussion  of  the  subject." 

The  delicacy  of  the  Executive  is  forbidden  here.  It 
was  sometimes  a  custom  of  white  treaty  makers,  on  occa- 
sions when  other  efforts  had  no  effect,  to  resort  to  methods 
of  persuasion,  deception  and  bribery  which  should  never 
have  been  employed.  The  Creek  treaty  of  1825  was  ob- 
tained in  such  a  way.  It  was  incorrectly  reported  to  the 
government  as  having  been  concluded  with  a  large  ma- 
jority of  the  chiefs  of  the  Creek  nation  and  with  a 
reasonable  prospect  of  immediate  acquiescence  by  the  re- 
mainder. When  the  people  of  the  Creek  nation  heard  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  they  uprose.  Two  of  the  native  signers 
were  put  to  death  as  traitors  for  an  attempt  to  sell  their 
country,  and  the  others  fled.  After  discovering  the  circum- 
stances surrounding  the  transaction  the  Federal  govern- 

1  On   Adams'   accession,    in   1825,  the   number   of   Creeks   living  under   their   own   rule 
and  on  their  own  lands  in  Georgia  and  Alabama  totaled  some  20,000  souls;  the  Choctaws  in 
Mississippi    and    Alabama    were    about    21,000    in    number    and    the    Chickasaw    nation,    in 
Mississippi,   had  a  population   of  about   3,600. 

At  the  same  date  the  Cherpkees  still  owned  5,292,160  acres  in  the  limits  of  modern 
Georgia,  while  the  Creeks  retained  4,245,760  acres  in  the  same  region.  The  aggregate 
holdings  of  the  same  two  nations  in  Alabama  were  5.995,200  acres,  and  the  Cherokees 
also  had  1,055,680  acres  in  Tennessee.  The  possessions  of  the  Chickasaws  and  Choctaws 
in  Alabama  aggregated  1,277,376  acres,  and  in  Mississippi  the  two  tribes  ruled  over  and 
owned  no  less  than  15,705.000  acres.  The  total  southern  territory  thus  still  in  possession 
of  the  four  red  nations  in  the  vear  named  equalled  33.571,176  acres,  or  a  region  one 
and  one-half  times  larger  than  the  combined  areas  of  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Con- 
necticut, Rhode  Island  and  Massachusetts. 

2  The  treaty  of  February  12,   1825. 

3  Dated  January  31,   1826. 

531 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

ment  under  Adams  made  no  effort  to  enforce  the  treaty, 
and  it  was  declared  cancelled.  A  new  agreement  was  made 
under  whose  terms  a  part  of  the  Creek  possessions  were 
obtained  on  immediate  payment  of  $217,600,  a  perpetual 
annuity  of  $20,000,  and  a  cession  of  territory  west  of  the 
Mississippi  for  such  of  the  nation  as  decided  to  remove 
thither.1 

The  dissensions  among  the  Creeks  brought  about  by 
the  methods  employed  by  the  United  States  during 
the  last  days  of  the  Monroe  administration  weak- 
ened the  native  nation,  and  in  the  winter  of  1 826-7  Georgia 
entered  its  territory  contrary  to  treaty  rights  of  the  In- 
dians and  the  Federal  law  of  1802.  Surveyors  were  in- 
structed to  plat  a  part  of  the  Creek  possessions,  and  the 
agents  of  the  state  were  told  they  would  be  protected  in 
their  work  by  Georgia  troops  if  necessary.  The  native 
nation  appealed  to  President  Adams,  who,  under  the  law 
of  1802,  had  power  to  halt  Georgia's  action  either  by 
civil  process  or  use  of  the  Federal  army.  Adams  sent  a 
special  message  to  Congress2  reciting  the  situation  and 
stating  his  intentions  in  the  following  words: 

In  abstaining  at  this  stage  of  the  proceedings  from  the 
application  of  any  military  force  I  have  been  governed  by  considera- 
tions which  will,  I  trust,  meet  the  concurrence  of  the  legislature. 
Among  them  one  of  paramount  importance  has  been  that  these  sur- 
veys have  been  attempted,  and  partly  effected,  under  color  of  legal  au- 
thority from  the  State  of  Georgia ;  that  the  surveyors  are,  therefore,  not 
to  be  viewed  in  the  light  of  individual  and  solitary  transgressors,  but 
as  the  agents  of  a  sovereign  state,  acting  in  obedience  to  authority  which 
they  believed  to  be  binding  upon  them.  Intimations  had  been  given 
that  should  they  meet  with  interruption  they  would  at  all  hazards  be 
sustained  by  the  military  force  of  the  State,  in  which  event,  if  the  mili- 
tary force  of  the  Union  should  have  been  employed  to  enforce  its 
violated  law,  a  conflict  must3  have  ensued  which  would  itself  have  in- 

1  The  Creeks  who  departed  to  the  westward  also  received  $100,000. 

2  On   February  5,   1827. 

3  The  word  "must"  is  emphasized  in  the  original. 

532 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

flicted  a  wound  upon  the  Union  and  have  presented  the  aspect  of  one 
of  these  confederated  states  at  war  with  the  rest. 

"It  ought  not,  however,  to  be  disguised  that  the  act  of  the  legislature 
of  Georgia,  under  the  construction  given  to  it  by  the  governor  of  that 
state,  and  the  surveys  made  or  attempted  by  his  authority  beyond  the 
boundary  secured  by  the  Treaty  of  Washington  of  April  last  to  the 
Creek  Indians,  are  in  direct  violation  of  the  supreme  law  of  this  land, 


• 


MANSIOKT-HOUS3S 


156. — Stage-coach    similar   to    the   preceding,   entering   a   town.     The   driver   is 

announcing  his  arrival  by  blowing  his  horn.     A  chair  and 

a  chaise  are  also  shown. 


set  forth  in  a  treaty  which  has  received  all  the  sanctions  provided  by 
the  Constitution  which  we  have  sworn  to  support  and  maintain.  .  .  . 
"In  the  present  instance  it  is  my  duty  to  say  that  if  the  legislative 
and  executive  authorities  of  the  State  of  Georgia  should  persevere  in 
acts  of  encroachment  upon  the  territories  secured  by  a  solemn  treaty  to 
the  Indians,  and  the  laws  of  the  Union  remain  unaltered,  a  super-added 
obligation  even  higher  than  that  of  human  authority  will  compel  the 
Executive  of  the  United  States  to  enforce  the  laws  and  fulfill  the  duties 
of  the  nation  by  all  the  force  committed  for  that  purpose  to  his 
charge.  .  .  ." 

533 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Georgia  soon  took  still  more  radical  action.  She 
passed  a  resolution  which  nullified  Federal  treaties  with 
the  Cherokees  and  Creeks,  declared  state  ownership  of 
such  of  their  possessions  as  lay  within  her  charter  limits, 
and  indicated  an  intention  to  seize  those  territories  by 
force  of  arms  if  she  could  not  obtain  them  in  any  other 
way.  This  resolution  read:1 

"A  Resolution  of  the  Legislature  of  Georgia,  approved  December 
27,  1827. 

"Resolved,  That  the  United  States  in  failing  to  procure  the  lands  in 
controversy  'as  early'  as  the  same  could  be  done  upon  'practicable'2 
and  'reasonable  terms'  have  palpably  violated  their  contract  with 
Georgia,  and  are  now  bound  at  all  hazards,  and  without  regard  to 
terms,  to  procure  said  lands  for  the  use  of  Georgia.  .  .  .3 

"Resolved,  That  all  the  lands  appropriated  and  unappropriated,  which 
lie  within  the  conventional  limits  of  Georgia,  belong  to  her  absolutely; 
that  the  title  is  in  her;  that  the  Indians  are  tenants  at  her  will,  and 
that  she  may  at  any  time  she  pleases,  determine  that  tenancy  by  taking 
possession  of  the  premises — and  that  Georgia  has  the  right  to  extend 
her  authority  and  laws  over  her  whole  territory,  and  to  coerce  obedi- 
ence to  them  from  all  descriptions  of  people,  be  they  white,  red,  or 
black,  who  may  reside  within  her  limits. 

"Resolved,  That  Georgia  entertains  for  the  general  government 
so  high  a  regard  and  is  so  solicitous  to  do  no  act  that  can  disturb  or 
tend  to  disturb  the  public  tranquillity,  that  she  will  not  attempt  to  im- 
prove her  rights  by  violence  until  all  other  means  of  redress  fail.  .  .  . 

"Resolved,  That  if  such  treaty  be  held,  the  President  be  respect- 
fully requested  to  instruct  the  commissioners  to  lay  a  copy  of  this  re- 
port before  the  Indians  in  convention,  with  such  comments  as  may  be 
considered  just  and  proper,  upon  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  Georgia 
title  to  the  lands  in  controversy,  and  the  probable  consequences  which 
will  result  from  a  continued  refusal  upon  the  part  of  the  Indians  to 
part  with  those  lands. 

"Resolved,  That  the  late  proceedings  of  the  Cherokee  Indians,  in 

1  Three  sections  are  here  omitted.     They  are  in  the  nature  of  emphasis  and  repetition, 
and  do  not  affect  the  meaning  of  the  resolution  in  any  way  not  disclosed  by  the  remainder 
as  here  quoted. 

2  An    improper    rendering    of   the    compact    of    1802.      The    word    in    the    original    was 
"peaceable,"  not  "practicable." 

3  Up   to    1824    the    Federal    government,    in    an    endeavor   to    carry   out    its    obligations 
under  the  compact  of  1802,  had  bought  lands  for  Georgia  as  follows: 

From  the  Creeks,   14,748,690   acres; 

From  the  Cherokees,   1,095,310  acres. 

Between  1824  and  1830  the  government  further  bought  4,083,200  acres  from  the 
Creeks  for  Georgia,  making  a  total  Federal  purchase  for  Georgia  under  the  1802  act  of 
19,927,200  acres. 

534 


_  - 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

framing  a  constitution  for  their  nation,  and  preparing  to  establish  a 
government  independent  of  Georgia,  is  inconsistent  with  the  rights  of 
said  State,  and  therefore  not  recognized  by  this  government,  and  ought 
to  be  decidedly  discountenanced  by  the  general  government." 

The  Cherokee  National  Council,  sitting  as  a  Constitu- 
tional Convention,  had  drawn  up  a  written  national  con- 
stitution during  the  previous  July.  The  Cherokees  had 
not,  however,  lately  proceeded  to  establish  a  government 
independent  of  Georgia  for  such  an  independent  native 
government  had  existed  since  the  organization  of  the  Fed- 
eral Union  and  .had  been  recognized  by  it  and  by  Georgia. 
Nor  did  the  adoption  of  a  constitution  in  1827  mark  the 
first  occasion  on  which  the  Cherokees  had  altered  their 
machinery  of  government  in  accordance  with  their 
development.  They  had  begun  to  enact  general  laws 
by  National  Council  in  1808.  In  1819  they  established  a 
Commission  government  vested  in  a  Standing  Committee 
of  13  elected  members.  In  1820  the  nation  was  divided 
into  eight  districts,  each  represented  in  the  National 
Council  by  four  salaried  members  chosen  through  popu- 
lar election.  Courts  were  established  and  judges  ap- 
pointed in  the  same  year.  Finally,  in  1827,  came  the  first 
written  constitution  and  a  legislative  body  composed  of 
two  houses.1 

A  contemporary  account  of  the  Cherokees  and  their 
republic,  written  and  published  in  the  same  year  that  wit- 
nessed the  foregoing  action  of  Georgia,  reads  as  follows:2 

"Within  the  last  twenty  years  the  Cherokees  have  rapidly  advanced 
towards  civilization.  They  now  live  in  comfortable  houses,  chiefly  in 

1  The  enactments  of  the  Cherokees  from  1808  to  1835,  together  with  the  Constitution 
of  1827,  were  collected  and  issued  in  1852  by  the  Indians'  governmental  printing  office, 
in  a  volume  of  179  pages,  under  the  title  "Laws  of  the  Cherokee  Nation:  Adopted  by 
the  Council  at  Various  Periods.  Printed  for  the  Benefit  of  the  Nation.  Cherokee 
Advocate  office,  Tahlequah,  C.  X.,  1852." 

The  second  written  constitution  (that  of  1839)  and  their  legislative  acts  from  1839 
to  1851  were  similarly  published  at  the  same  time  in  a  volume  of  248  pages  entitled,  "The 
Constitution  and  Laws  of  the  Cherokee  Nation.  Passed  at  Tahlequah,  Cherokee  Nation, 
1839-51.  Tahlequah,  Cherokee  Nation,  1852." 

Tahlequah   was  the   native  capital  after  the   removal  west   of  the   Mississippi. 

*  l-'rcm   Sherwood's  "Gazetteer   of  Georgia,   1827." 

536 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

villages,  and  cultivate  large  farms.  They  raise  large  herds  of  cattle, 
which  they  sell  for  beef  to  the  inhabitants  of  neighboring  states.  Many 
median ical  arts  have  been  introduced  among  them.  .  .  .  The 
population,  instead  of  decreasing,  as  is  the  case  generally  with  tribes 
surrounded  by  the  whites,  increases  very  rapidly,  .  .  .  increase  in 
the  last  six  years,  3,563.  .  .  .  Their  government  is  republican, 
and  power  is  vested  in  a  Committee  and  Council,  answering  to  our 
Senate  and  House  of  Representatives.  The  members  are  elected  once 
in  two  years.  .  .  .  Their  judges  act  with  authority." 

During  the  year  1828  the  Georgia  legislature  passed 
two  more  acts  dealing  with  the  Indian  question.  The 
first  of  these  was  directed  against  the  Creeks,  and  con- 
tained the  following  provisions: 

"That  from  and  after  the  passage  of  this  act,  it  shall  not  be  lawful 
for  any  Indian  or  descendant  of  an  Indian,  belonging  to  the  Creek 
nation  of  Indians,  to  cross  the  river  Chatahouchee,  and  enter  upon  the 
territory  of  said  state,  under  any  pretext  whatever,  except  they  have, 
and  can  shew  a  written  permit  from  the  United  States  agent  . 
which  permit  shall  not  exceed  ten  days'  duration.  .  .  . 

"And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  when  any  Indian  or  Indians 
shall  be  strolling  over  any  country,  on  the  frontier  of  said  state,  with 
such  permit  as  aforesaid,  and  shall  interfere  with  the  private  property, 
or  interrupt  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  any  of  the  citizens  afore- 
said, it  shall  and  may  be  lawful  for  them  to  be  apprehended  as  afore- 
said, on  its  being  made  appear  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  magistrate, 
to  whom  the  warrant  is  made  returnable,  that  said  Indian  or  Indians 
were  without  lawful  business,  and  disturbing  the  peace,  or  molesting 
the  property  of  said  citizens;  for  said  magistrate  to  imprison  said  In- 
dian or  Indians  not  exceeding  the  term  of  time  aforesaid.  .  .  ."1 

The  remaining  Georgia  law  of  1828  was  directed  to- 
ward both  the  Cherokee  and  Creek  nations,  and  was  en- 
titled, "An  act  to  add  the  territory  lying  within  the  limits 
of  this  state,  and  occupied  by  the  Cherokee  Indians,  to  the 
counties  of  Carroll,  De  Kalb,  Gwinnett,  Hall  and  Haber- 
sham;  and  to  extend  the  laws  of  this  state  over  the  same, 
and  for  other  purposes."  The  first  five  sections  of  the 
enactment  defined  the  various  geographical  parts  of  the 

1  Ten  daj'S.  Indians  without  permits  were  subject  to  similar  imprisonment  whether 
they  interrupted  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  the  whites  or  not.  It  was  more  difficult  for 
natives  to  travel  safely  in  Caucasian  territory  than  for  whites  to  travel  in  native  regions. 

537 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Cherokee  territories  placed  within  the  counties  named. 
Section  six  provided  that  all  white  persons  in  the  affected 
districts  fell  under  the  operation  of  the  statute  immedi- 
ately after  its  passage.  Section  eight  read: 

"And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  all  laws,  usages,  and  customs 
made,  established  and  in  force,  in  the  said  territory,  by  the  said  Chero- 
kee Indians  be,  and  the  same  are  hereby,  on  and  after  the  first  of  June, 
1830,  declared  null  and  void." 

Sections  7  and  9  of  the  statute  related  to  the  jurisdic- 
tion set  up  by  Georgia  over  the  individual  Indians  of 
the  Cherokee  and  Creek  nations,  and  to  the  amenability 
of  the  Indians  of  those  nations  to  laws  passed  by  the 
Georgia  legislature.  Though  separated  in  the  original 
act  by  section  8  just  quoted,  the  relationship  of  sections  7 
and  9  is  such  that  they  require  to  be  read  together.  The 
text  of  the  two  sections  ran : 

"Sec.  7.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  after  the  first  of  June, 
1830,  all  Indians  then  and  at  that  time  residing  in  said  territory,  and 
within  any  one  of  the  counties  as  aforesaid,  shall  be  liable  and  sub- 
ject to  such  laws  and  regulations  as  the  legislature  may  hereafter 
prescribe." 

"Sec.  9.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  no  Indian,  or  descendant 
of  Indian,  residing  within  the  Creek  or  Cherokee  nations  of  Indians, 
shall  be  deemed  a  competent  witness,  or  a  party  to  any  suit,  in  any 
court  created  by  the  constitution  or  laws  of  this  state,  to  which  a 
white  man  may  be  a  party." 

This  state  law  spoke  the  approaching  downfall  of  the 
Indian  nations  of  the  South,  and  both  the  date  of  its  pas- 
sage and  part  of  its  phraseology  may  have  a  significance 
which  does  not  appear  on  the  surface  of  the  action.  It 
was  passed  by  Georgia's  legislature  on  December  20, 
1828,  after  it  was  known  that  Andrew  Jackson  was  to 
succeed  Adams  as  Chief  Executive  of  the  country.1 
Adams'  attitude  on  the  question  of  Indian  rights  under 
Federal  law  and  treaties  had  been  tested,  and  the  law  was 

1  Adams  did  not  receive  a  vote  in  Georgia  in  1828. 

538 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

so  worded  that  only  white  people  in  the  annexed  terri- 
tories should  be  touched  by  it  while  Adams  remained 
President.  The  application  of  the  statute  to  the  Chero- 
kees  and  Creeks  as  individuals,  and  its  destruction  of 
Cherokee  government,  were  to  occur  after  the  next 
Federal  administration  should  be  in  office.  Jackson  had 
for  some  time  declared  "that  if  the  states  chose  to 


158. — Metallic  ticket  of  a  passenger  stage  line  in  New  York  City.  Revealing  a 
vehicle  similar  to  some  of  those  portrayed  in  the  preceding  illustration, 
but  here  called  an  "omnibus."  Date,  about  1830-1835.  Brass;  actual 
size. 

extend  their  laws  over  them  [the  Indians]  it  would  not 
be  in  the  power  of  the  Federal  Government  to  pre- 
vent it."1 

By  the  year  1828  the  problem  arising  from  the  Indian 
situation  in  the  South  was  attracting  the  attention  of  the 
country,  and  the  predicament  into  which  the  white  race 
had  fallen  was  recognized.  Government  exerted  its  ut- 
most legitimate  effort  to  induce  a  migration  of  the  four 
great  red  nations  and  the  cession  of  their  countries,  but 
without  avail.  The  natives  refused  either  to  sell  or  to  go, 
stood  on  their  treaty  rights  and  demanded  protection 
from  invasion  in  order  that  they  might  develop  in  peace. 
President  Adams'  action  in  behalf  of  the  Creeks  prevented 
any  further  overt  movement  by  a  white  state  during  the 
remainder  of  his  term  of  office,  but  in  the  last  year  of  his 

1  His  own  language  in  defining  his  position.  Contained  in  a  message  to  the  Senate 
under  date  of  February  22,  1831,  in  answer  to  the  Senate's  request  for  an  explanation 
of  his  acts  and  policy  toward  the  Indians.  The  alteration  in  Jackson's  opinion  must, 
however,  have  taken  place  since  1820,  for  in  that  year,  as  a  Plenipotentiary  of 
the  United  States,  he  had  guaranteed  the  inviolability  of  the  Choctaw  possessions  until 
the  members  of  the  nation  became  United  States  citizens. 

539 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

administration  it  was  seen  that  a  crisis  could  not  be  far 
distant.  One  of  Adams'  efforts  to  secure  the  removal 
of  the  Cherokees  consisted  in  negotiating  a  treaty1  with 
them,  non-compulsory  in  character  as  far  as  immediate 
general  migration  was  concerned,  but  which,  it  was 


159. — Metallic  ticket  of  the  Telegraph  Line  of  passenger  stages  in  New  York 
City.  Showing  a  further  development  of  the  former  stages  toward  the 
omnibus  type.  All  known  examples  are  punched.  Probably  the  driver 
carried  his  stock  of  tickets  strung  on  a  wire,  to  prevent  loss.  Brass;  actual 
size.  Date,  about  1840-1845. 

hoped,  would  offer  guarantees  for  the  future  that  might 
attract  the  bulk  of  the  nation  from  the  eastward.  Never 
before  had  the  United  States  used  similar  language  in 
dealing  with  a  native  tribe.  The  tone  of  patronage  and 
protestations  of  philanthropy  that  had  so  long  distin- 
guished Indian  treaties  did  not  appear.  Conditions  were 
serious  at  last.  The  pledges  of  the  treaty  are  here  given : 

"Whereas  it  being  the  anxious  desire  of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  to  secure  to  the  Cherokee  nation  of  Indians  ...  a 
permanent  2  home,  and  which  shall,  under  the  most  solemn  guarantees 
of  the  United  States,  be,  and  remain,  theirs  forever — a  home  that 
shall  never,  in  all  future  time,  be  embarrassed  by  having  extended 
around  it  the  lines,  or  placed  over  it  the  jurisdiction  of  a  Territory  or 
State,  nor  be  pressed  upon  by  the  extension,  in  any  way,  of  any  of  the 
limits  of  any  existing  Territory  or  State;  .  .  .  the  parties  hereto 
do  hereby  conclude  the  following  articles,  viz. : 

"Article  2.  The  United  States  agree  to  possess  the  Cherokees, 
and  to  guarantee  it  to  them  forever,  and  that  guarantee  is  hereby  sol- 
emnly pledged,  of  seven  millions  of  acres  of  land,  to  be  bounded  as 

J  Dated   May  6,   1828. 

c  "Permanent"    is   emphasized   in    official   government   texts. 

540 


O     M.     ', 

o   n    i—; 
D    rt    ^ 


3  =• 


-!     O-  y 

5-0™ 


-  -  - 

(jq   ^j  n 
~ 


CTQ        3 
OQ   ~  oo 


3  T3    3 

a, 


O    3 
^•-,  •• 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

follows.  ...  In  addition  to  the  seven  millions  of  acres  thus 
provided  for,  and  bounded,  the  United  States  further  guarantee  to  the 
Cherokee  nation  a  perpetual  outlet,  West,  and  a  free  and  unmolested 
use  of  all  the  country  lying  West  of  the  Western  boundary  of  the 
above  described  limits,  and  as  far  west  as  the  sovereignty  of  the  United 
States,  and  their  right  of  soil  extend." 

Those  Cherokees  who  had  removed  to  Arkansas  in 
1817  and  1819  thereupon  gave  up  the  Arkansas  lands  se- 
cured to  them  at  that  time  and  accepted  the  pledges  and 
territory  above  recited,1  but  there  was  then  no  general 
exodus  of  the  tribe  from  Georgia. 

Near  the  close  of  his  administration  President  Adams 
gave  his  views  on  the  race  conflict  in  his  last  annual  mes- 
sage,2 and  in  the  following  terms : 

"At  the  establishment  of  the  Federal  government  under  the  pres- 
ent Constitution  of  the  United  States  the  principle  was  adopted  of  con- 
sidering them  as  foreign  and  independent  powers  and  also  as  proprietors 
of  lands.  They  were,  moreover,  considered  as  savages,  whom  it  was 
our  policy  and  our  duty  to  use  our  influence  in  converting  to  Chris- 
tianity and  in  bringing  within  the  pale  of  civilization. 

"As  independent  powers,  we  negotiated  with  them  by  treaties;  as 
proprietors,  we  purchased  of  them  all  the  lands  which  we  could  prevail 
upon  them  to  sell.  .  .  .  The  ultimate  design  was  to  incorporate 
in  our  own  institutions  that  portion  of  them  which  could  be  converted 
to  the  state  of  civilization.  In  the  practice  of  European  states,  before 
our  Revolution,  they  had  been  considered  as  children  to  be  governed; 
as  tenants  at  discretion,  to  be  dispossessed  as  occasion  might  require; 
as  hunters  to  be  indemnified  by  trifling  concessions  for  removal  from 
the  grounds  from  which  their  game  was  extirpated. 

"In  changing  the  system  it  would  seem  as  if  a  full  contemplation  of 
the  consequences  of  the  change  had  not  been  taken.  We  have  been 
far  more  successful  in  the  acquisition  of  their  lands  than  in  imparting 
to  them  the  principles  or  inspiring  them  with  the  spirit  of  civilization. 
But  in  appropriating  to  ourselves  their  hunting  grounds  we  have  brought 
upon  ourselves  the  obligation  of  providing  them  with  subsistence;  and 
when  we  have  had  the  rare  good  fortune  of  teaching  them  the  arts  of 
civilization  and  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  we  have  unexpectedly 

1  The    inviolable    region    then    given    to    the    Cherokees,    which    was    never    to    have 
extended   around   it   the   lines   of   any   territory   or   state,   lies   south   of   Kansas,   not   far 
from  the  present  geographical  center  of  the  United  States. 

2  December  2,   1828. 

542 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

found  them  forming  in  the  midst  of  ourselves  communities  claiming 
to  be  independent  of  ours  and  rivals  of  sovereignty  x  within  the  terri- 
tories of  the  members  of  our  Union.  This  state  of  things  requires  that 
a  remedy 2  should  be  provided — a  remedy  which,  while  it  shall  do 
justice  to  those  unfortunate  children  of  nature,  may  secure  to  the  mem- 
bers of  our  confederation  their  rights  of  sovereignty  and  of  soil.  ..." 

Three  or  four  elements  of  President  Adams'  opinion 
require  attention.  One  relates  to  his  Executive  declara- 
tion—  the  last  one  in  history  —  to  the  effect  that  Indian 
nations  were,  in  the  eyes  of  the  United  States,  "foreign 
and  independent  powers."  With  the  expiration  of  Adams' 
term  they  had  held  that  rank  for  forty  years.  Another 
phase  of  the  retiring  President's  view  has  to  do  with  the 
surprise  voiced  by  him,  and  which  suddenly  swept  over 
the  white  people  when  they  at  last  realized  that  some  of 
the  red  nations  possessed  qualities  of  manhood  and  civic 
pride  which,  under  conditions  even  in  a  small  degree 
favorable,  made  it  possible  for  them  to  walk  with  their 
Caucasian  fellows  toward  higher  conditions  of  life  — 
in  the  material  sense.  The  mass  of  the  newly  arrived 
Americans  had  seemingly  underrated  the  basic  character 
of  the  red  men,  perhaps  because  they  found  it  so  easy  to 
deceive  them  in  matters  which  hung  on  the  principle  of 
honesty.  They  had  hard  work  to  comprehend  a  people 
who  meant  what  they  said;  a  people  who — before  the 
white  men  came — had  apparently  heard  truth  so  long  that 
they  could  not  avoid  the  habit  of  believing,  and  who  still 
tried  to  believe  even  when  they  knew  they  shouldn't.  So 
the  misconception  got  an  early  start  and  thereafter  re- 
mained. Much  of  the  civilizing  process  to  which  the 
natives  had  been  subjected  for  nearly  two  centuries  was 

1  A  contradiction  of  the  previous  part  of  the  message,  wherein  the  President  had 
already  stated  that  the  red  people  had  long  been  officially  recognized  as  foreign  and 
independent  powers. 

-  The  remedy  suggested  by  Adams  was  a  colonization  plan  in  the  West,  drawn  up 
Dy  the  War  Department  and  submitted  with  the  message. 

543 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

that  which  tended  to  drag  them  down1  and  make  savages 
out  of  them.  Civilizing  a  man  does  not  necessarily  make 
him  morally  better.  It  may  make  him  worse. 

Finally  the  red  nations  of  the  South  got  a  chance, 
after  the  era  of  warfare  ended,  personally  to  select  from 
the  plane  of  human  society  called  civilized  life  those  ele- 
ments of  it  which  they  desired,  and  to  keep  at  arm's  length 
for  a  time  those  other  features  of  it  which  the  white  race 
had  so  lavishly  bestowed  on  many  natives.  The  result  was 
immediate,  and  no  doubt  unexpected  by  the  mass  of  the 
Caucasians.  A  feeling  somewhat  akin  to  indignation 
came  over  them.  They  acted  as  if  they  had  bsen  grossly 
deceived.  They  were  angry  at  their  own  government, 
and  blamed  it  for  such  a  lamentable  miscarriage  of  mani- 
fest destiny.  Unfortunate  children  of  nature,  they  felt, 
ought  not  experiment  with  patriotism  and  legislatures, 
and  should  either  accept  the  particular  variety  of  civili- 
zation offered  to  them  by  self-confessed  benefactors  or  go 
without  its  blessing  altogether. 

President  Adams  said:  "We  have  been  far  more  suc- 
cessful in  the  acquisition  of  their  lands  than  in  imparting 
to  them  the  principles  or  inspiring  them  with  the  spirit 
of  civilization."  There  had  apparently  been  no  general 
desire  by  the  white  population  to  inspire  the  natives  with 
the  spirit  of  civilization  in  any  fine  significance  of  that 
expression,  nor  an  unselfish  and  honest  effort  of  the  gov- 
ernment toward  the  same  end.  The  Cherokees  and  a  few 
other  red  nations  did  believe  until  about  1825  that  the 
republic's  official  interest  in  their  welfare  was  unselfish, 
and  they  were  grateful  for  it.  But  —  for  us  of  these  later 
days  —  the  sight  of  two  consecutive  Presidents  trying  for 

1  Reference  is  here  made  to  the  influence  of  the  whites  en  masse;  not  to  the  splend  d 
and  helpful  work  of  numerous  individual  white  missionaries.  The  natives  often  asked 
such  missionaries  why  they  did  not  devote  their  effort  to  their  own  white  brothers,  whc 
appeared  to  need  it  so  much  in  matters  of  every-day  living  and  mutual  association. 

544 


161. — The  Concord  Coach.  A  stage  of  Beltzhoover  and  Company's  Phoenix 
Line,  running  between  Washington  a;;d  Baltimore  about  1830.  Probably 
the  largest  and  most  pretentious  American  stage-coach  print.  Engraved 
by  the  artist  Swett,  after  his  own  drawing. 

a  period  of  years  to  find  a  remedy  for  native  civilization 
and  its  logical  and  beneficial  results,  casts  a  doubt  on 
the  sincerity  of  contrary  governmental  protestations. 
Congressional  endorsement  of  Indian  progress,  and  white 
legislative  action  designed  to  supply  the  southern  native 
nations  with  materials  of  husbandry,  ceased  after  unmis- 
takable symptoms  of  their  advancement  became  visible. 

In  giving  concrete  application  to  President  Adams' 
remarks  on  the  ratio  existing  between  land  acquired  from 
Indians  and  civilization  bestowed  upon  them,  it  will  be 
found  that  the  situation  in  the  South  was  the  contrary 
of  his  statement;  nor  had  the  United  States  brought  upon 
itself  any  obligation  to  provide  the  southern  nations  with 
subsistence.  They,  instead,  were  exporting  their  surplus 

545 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

crops  to  white  communities.  Again,  their  claim  of  in- 
dependence and  sovereignty  to  which  the  President  refers 
as  an  unexpected  phenomenon  was  but  the  inevitable 
corollary  of  the  recognition  accorded  to  them  by  the 
United  States  from  the  foundation  of  constitutional  gov- 
ernment. It  could  scarcely  have  been  expected  that  their 
love  of  country  would  steadily  dwindle,  as  they  became 
more  secure  and  prosperous  in  its  possession,  until  finally 
they  would  be  ready  to  abandon  it.  And  every  advancing 
step  in  their  progress  could  not  but  be  marked  by  an  in- 
crease in  the  governmental  machinery  necessary  to  con- 
duct the  affairs  of  a  more  busy  and  complex  society. 

A  sincere  desire  by  one  people,  for  any  sort  of  civiliza- 
tion on  the  part  of  another  people,  must  take  thought  of 
those  elemental  and  essential  features  of  civilization  here 
mentioned,  and  expect  them  duly  to  appear.  Indeed,  a 
failure  to  anticipate  them  —  by  those  capable  of 
anticipation  —  is  in  some  measure  a  suggestion  that  any 
advocacy  of  human  advancement  which  fails  to  consider 
them  is  insincere.  President  Monroe  had  mentioned  the 
lack  of  foresight  used  in  dealing  with  the  Indians,  and 
now  Adams  —  in  commenting  on  the  policy  adopted  to- 
ward them  in  1789  —  was  to  say:  "It  would  seem  as  if 
a  full  contemplation  of  the  consequences  of  the  change 
had  not  been  taken." 

One  other  matter  mentioned  by  Adams  in  his  last 
message  commands  attention  before  the  recital  of  his- 
torical events  is  resumed.  It  is  a  subject  that  at  all  times 
bore  a  more  or  less  intimate  relation  to  the  misunderstand- 
ing between  the  races.  President  Adams  mentioned  that 
the  red  men  had  been  looked  on  as  savages,  and  that  it 
had  been  considered  both  the  duty  and  the  policy  of  the 
whites  to  convert  them  to  Christianity. 

546 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Now  it  so  happened  that  the  most  deplorable  tragedy 
enacted  in  the  relations  between  light-skinned  and  dark- 
skinned  peoples  was  due  to  the  unfortunate  and  mistaken 
policy  of  Spain  in  her  treatment  of  American  Indians. 
A  part  of  the  persecutions  to  which  the  natives  were  sub- 
jected by  early  Spaniards  took  place  in  the  near-by  part 
of  North  America  now  occupied  by  Mexico,  and  their 
extent  and  long  continuance  caused  a  vague  knowledge  of 
them  to  spread  slowly  through  a  large  part  of  the  red 
population  to  the  northward.  Even  after  those  cruelties 
abated  the  memory  of  them  still  persisted.  Spain  was  a 
Christian  nation  and  the  native  population,  in  some  degree 
at  least,  came  to  link  deception,  avarice,  injustice  and  op- 
pression with  Christianity  as  one  of  the  phases  or  outcrop- 
pings  of  that  religion.  So  when  another  light-skinned 
horde  of  invaders  came,  proclaimed  Christianity  as  its 
religion  and  urged  that  belief  upon  the  natives  in  place  of 
their  own,  any  endeavor  to  secure  its  general  adoption  by 
them  was  handicapped.  The  red  men  at  once  discovered, 
it  is  true,  that  there  were  many  fine  characters  among  the 
multiplying  strangers;  but  certain  traits,  methods  and 
practises  which  were  exposed  to  view  by  the  English 
speaking  people  as  time  went  on  often  led  the  Indians  to 
believe  that  though  the  Caucasian  religion  was  —  from 
their  standpoint  —  a  much  milder  and  less  dangerous  kind 
of  Christianity  than  that  of  which  tradition  told  them,  it 
was  nevertheless  not  one  which  appealed  strongly  to  them 
if  men  could  believe  in  it  and  at  the  same  time  do  various 
things  which  the  white  men  did. 

The  sole  standard  of  the  natives  for  the  measurement 
of  human  belief  and  action  was  their  knowledge  of  them- 
selves. Among  the  most  advanced  of  them  there  was  a 
considerable  uniformity  of  basic  ethical  principles  and  a 

547 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

similar  uniformity  in  the  manifestations  of  those  funda- 
mental beliefs  through  deeds.  This  was  not  so  among  the 
white  people,  but  the  red  men,  applying  their  own  stand- 
ards of  measure,  long  thought  it  was  so,  and  therefore  they 
attributed  to  white  men  generally  a  willingness  to  commit 


162. — A  flat-topped  coach,  probably  on  the  road  from  Philadelphia  to  Baltimore, 
about   1832-1835.     Engraved  by  the   artist  Tudor  Horton. 

the  wrong  acts  which  they  saw  individual  white  people 
employ.  Thus  the  natives  in  a  measure  misunderstood 
those  who  had  come  among  them. 

The  mass  of  English  speaking  people,  on  the  other 
hand,  based  their  misconception  of  Indian  character 
and  capacity  on  different,  broader  and  characteristic 
grounds.  They  simply  took  it  for  granted  that  no 
primitive  people  —  and  especially  one  using  bows  and 
arrows  —  could  be  their  own  equals  in  any  respect  either 
of  deed,  thought  or  belief,  and  that  consequently  any 
ethical  or  moral  convictions  which  the  Indians  might  by 
chance  possess  could  not  be  worthy  of  holding. 

This  attitude  of  the  whites  was  no  doubt  one  of  the 
gravest  of  their  errors  in  dealing  with  the  natives.  It 

548 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

prevented  a  possible  meeting  of  the  two  races  on  a  com- 
mon plane  of  human  sympathy  and  understanding  that 
might  perhaps  have  solved  many  of  the  difficulties  of 
the  situation  without  the  unhappy  events  which  did 
attend  their  solution.  It  was  due  to  the  mental  arrogance 
of  the  Caucasians  and  to  mistaken  belief  that  human 
superiority,  either  among  individuals  or  peoples,  is 
chiefly  demonstrated  —  if  not  invariably  proved  —  by 
material  possessions  and  physical  power.  The  red  men 
did  not  number  more  than  a  few  hundred  thousand 
souls,  and  the  practical  sense  and  clear,  direct  reasoning 
characteristic  of  their  mental  processes  speedily  showed 
them  the  advantage  of  harmonious  relations  and  mutual 
good  will.  Had  they  been  consistently  met  in  the 
same  spirit  it  is  doubtful  if  the  white  Americans  would 
in  the  end  have  lost  anything  they  now  possess,  while  both 
they  themselves  and  the  Indians  would  assuredly  have 
preserved  much  that  was  lost. 

As  far  as  the  ethical  beliefs  and  resultant  practises 
of  the  more  advanced  natives  in  their  natural  state  were 
concerned  they  did,  in  fact,  compare  rather  favorably  with 
the  strangers.  Only  a  small  number  of  competent  white 
men  gave  serious  study  to  those  things  until  comparatively 
recent  times,  or  had  opportunity  to  do  so,  but  the  testimony 
they  left  is  often  valuable  and  enlightening.  Three  short 
examples  of  it  are  here  given:1 

"I  fearlessly  assert  to  the  world,  and  I  defy  contradiction,  that  the 
North  American  Indian  is  everywhere  in  his  native  state  a  highly  moral 
and  religious  being  .  .  . 

"I  never  saw  any  other  people  who  spend  so  much  of  their  lives  in 
humbling  themselves  before  and  worshipping  the  Great  Spirit  as  these 
tribes  do,  nor  any  whom  I  would  not  as  soon  suspect  of  insincerity  and 
hypocrisy. 

1  The  narratives  of  others  who  carefully  studied  the  Indians  while  they  were  yet 
unaffected  by  intimate  contact  with  the  whites,  and  of  travellers  among  them,  will  reveal 
similar  opinions  and  statements. 

549 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"To  each  other  I  have  found  these  people  kind  and  honorable,  and 
endowed  with  every  feeling  of  parental,  filial  and  conjugal  affection  that 
is  met  with  in  more  enlightened  communities."  1 

Another  comment  reads : 

"  .  .  .  Simply  to  call  these  people  religious  would  convey  but  a 
faint  idea  of  the  deep  hue  of  piety  and  devotion  which  pervades  the 
whole  of  their  conduct.  Their  honesty  is  immaculate ;  and  their  purity 
of  purpose  and  their  observance  of  the  rites  of  their  religion  are  most 
uniform  and  remarkable.  They  are  certainly  more  like  a  nation  of 
saints  than  a  horde  of  savages."  2 

The  third  of  these  observations  is  a  more  detailed 
statement,  and  deals  with  the  Sioux  as  they  were  in  1818. 
The  later  history  of  the  West  gives  these  comments  an 
added  significance:3 

"The  pagans  on  the  River  St.  Peter  have  no  knowledge  of  the  Bible, 
but  they  believe  in  a  Great  Spirit  who  lives  forever  in  a  palace  above  all 
clouds — and  that  he  made  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  the  earth,  the 
lakes,  rivers,  trees,  cattle,  fishes,  birds,  and  all  things,  and  gave  them  to 
the  Indians,  who  are  like  Him  in  shape,  in  benevolence,  and  in  goodness ; 
and  they  believe  that  if  they  are  moral  and  pious  they  will  be  sent  for 
by  the  Great  Spirit  to  live  with  him  in  his  palace  forever,  and  want  no 
good  thing.  Also  they  believe  in  the  following  revelation  and  laws,  sent 
to  their  ancestors  by  the  Great  Spirit. 

"1 — Fear,  love  and  praise  the  Great  Spirit. 

"2— Be  honest. 

"3 — Love  one  another. 

"4 — Be  charitable. 

"5 — Injure  no  man. 

"6 — Be  merciful  to  animals. 

"Thus  live  the  Sioux  Nations  on  the  West  side  of  the  Mississippi  to 
the  Shining  Mountains  in  perfect  orthodoxy;  no  ways  troubled  about  the 
opinions  of  fathers,  councils,  bishops,  or  churches,  but  contented  with 
their  short  creed  and  divine  rules. 

"Since  residing  here  amongst  many  pagan  tribes,  wTho  are  the  most 
innocent,  benevolent  and  moral  part  of  the  human  race  I  ever  saw,  I 
have  thought  much.  The  moral  perfection  of  these  Indians  and  their 
creed  have  brought  me  to  join  with  them  in  saying  that  their  Articles 
are  as  good  as  the  Articles  of  the  multiformed  churches  of  Christendom. 

1  "Letters  and  Notes  on  the  Manners,  Customs  and  Condition  of  the  North  American 
Indians."     Second   Edition:   Vol.    II,  p.   243. 

2  "The   Adventures  of  Captain   Bonneville":   chapter  9.     Refers  to  the  Nez   Perces. 

3  This  letter   has  apparently   escaped   notice  in  any  history   of  the   western   Indians   or 
of  the  regions  concerned.     It  was  written  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  in  Alay  of  1818,  and  printed 
in  the  "Indiana  Centinel"  of  May  29,  1819. 

550 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"These  pagans  have  high  prejudices  against  Christians,  and  believe 
the  Spaniards  are  the  only  true  Christians,  whose  cruelties,  murders  and 
robberies  in  South  America  of  the  Indians  are  well  known  by  tradition 
among  the  Sioux  tribes ;  and  when  any  white  traders  cheat  and  deceive  a 
Sioux  Pagan  they  are  called  Spaniards  and  Christians.  .  .  . 

"If  the  Americans  should  ever  attempt  to  introduce  Christianity 
among  the  Sioux  tribes,  they  must  send  honest  traders,  sensible  and  moral 
men,  to  deal  with  them,  and  make  use  of  no  severity.  Mildness,  benevo- 
lence and  pious  examples  must  be  used  among  the  Sioux  Nations  to  in- 
duce them  to  adopt  a  life  of  civilization,  and  no  use  is  to  be  made  of  the 
word  Christian  or  Spaniard. 

"Military  compulsion  will  not  be  useful  in  civilizing  Indians.  The 
Sioux  know  they  are  the  real  and  rightful  owners  of  the  land  by  virtue 
of  the  Great  Spirit,  by  long  possession  and  occupancy,  and  no  white  peo- 
ple have  a  right  to  build  forts,  houses,  and  cultivate  their  lands,  until 
they  obtain  from  the  Indians  a  right  by  purchase,  and  consent  of  the 
owners  and  present  possessors. 

"This  doctrine  is  not  pleasing  to  military  commanders,  but  must  be 
attended  to  by  our  government,  to  prevent  a  war  with  the  many  tribes 
of  Indians  in  this  western  territory.  For  two  years  past  no  crime  has 
been  committed  among  all  these  many  Indian  tribes." 

The  native  beliefs  of  the  red  peoples,  together  with 
a  discord  which  they  observed  between  the  spoken  re- 
ligion and  numerous  outward  acts  of  the  white  men,  were 
the  causes  contributing  to  the  result  mentioned  by  Presi- 
dent Adams.  Nevertheless  some  natives  did  embrace 
the  religious  beliefs  so  constantly  offered  to  them  by  ear- 
nest and  self-sacrificing  missionaries  in  all  parts  of  the 
country.  In  the  case  of  the  Cherokees  practically  the 
whole  people  became  converts,  built  churches,  and  printed 
their  own  hymn  books  and  other  similar  volumes  in  their 
own  written  language,  from  type  set  up  in  the  govern- 
ment printing  establishment  in  their  capital,  New  Echota. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

MISSISSIPPI  AND  ALABAMA  JOIN  GEORGIA  IN  THE  ATTACK 
ON  NATIVE  INDEPENDENCE  —  DOWNFALL  OF  INDIAN 
SELF-GOVERNMENT  AND  CIVILIZATION  IN  THE  EAST 
DRAWS  NEARER  —  JACKSON  ASSUMES  THE  PRESI- 
DENCY AND  CROSSES  THE  RUBICON  —  CHARACTER  OF 
HIS  UTTERANCES  ON  THE  INDIAN  PROBLEM  —  AP- 
PEAL OF  THE  CHEROKEE  LEGISLATURE  TO  THE  WHITE 
PEOPLE  —  ACTION  OF  THE  CHOCTAW  NATIONAL 
COUNCIL  —  PLEDGES  OF  THE  CHOCTAW  TREATY  — 
CONDITIONS  OF  CHOCTAW  SOCIETY  —  DEMANDS  OF 
THE  CHICKASAWS  AND  EXTENT  OF  THEIR  ADVANCE- 
MENT—  JACKSON'S  PERSONAL  JOURNEY  TO  MEET 

THE  CHICKASAWS  AND  HIS  SPEECH  TO  THEM  —  THE 
UNITED  STATES  REAFFIRMS  NATIVE  INDEPENDENCE 
AND  RE-CREATES  WEST  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  THE  SAME 
CONDITIONS  WHICH  IT  IS  TRYING  TO  DESTROY  IN  THE 
EAST 

THE  states  of  Mississippi  and  Alabama  joined  with 
Georgia  in  refusing  longer  to  recognize  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  southern  Indian  nations  immediately  after 
President  Jackson  assumed  the  duties  of  his  office. 
A  year  previous  to  that  time,  while  Adams  was  still  in 
power,  Mississippi  had  addressed  a  memorial  to  the 
Federal  Congress1  recognizing  that  the  United  States 
alone  could  treat  with  the  Chickasaws  and  Choctaws 

JOn   February   17,   1828. 

552 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

within  the  modern  bounds  of  the  state.  The  document 
related  existing  conditions,  announced  that  white  men  had 
gone  into  the  native  territories  and  said:  "Your  memo- 
rialists therefore  respectfully  suggest,  that  the  removal 
of  the  aforesaid  white  persons  by  general  government, 
and  a  judicious  selection  of  commissioners  to  treat  with 
these  nations  for  their  lands  would  obviate  most  of  the 
difficulties  which  have  heretofore  opposed  themselves  to 
the  acquirement  of  the  Indian  lands."  The  memorial 
also  said:  "A  large  portion  of  the  most  valuable  terri- 
tory within  the  chartered  limits  of  this  state  is  occupied  by 
savage  tribes."1 

The  Mississippi  statute  designed  to  cancel  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  two  red  nations  whose  existence  the  state 
had  decided  thereafter  to  ignore  despite  Federal  treaties 
was  enacted  on  February  4,  1829,2  some  five  weeks  after 
Georgia's  similar  action.  It  was  entitled  "An  act  to  ex- 
tend legal  process  into  that  part  of  this  state  now  occupied 
by  the  Chickasaw  and  Choctaw  tribes  of  Indians."  Fol- 
lowing the  law  of  1829  Mississippi  passed,  in  1830,  a 
statute  reading: 

"An  act  to  extend  the  laws  of  the  State  of  Mississippi  over  the  per- 
sons and  property  of  the  Indians  resident  within  its  limits. 

"Sec.  1.  Be  it  enacted  .  .  .  That  from  and  after  the  passage  of 
this  act,  all  the  rights,  privileges,  immunities  and  franchises,  held, 
claimed  or  enjoyed  by  those  persons  called  Indians,  and  their  descend- 
ants, and  which  are  held  by  virtue  of  any  form  of  policy,  usage  or  cus- 
tom existing  among  said  persons,  not  particularly  recognized  and  estab- 
lished by  the  common  law  or  statutes  of  the  state  of  Mississippi,  be,  and 
the  same  are  hereby  wholly  abolished,  and  taken  away." 

Section  two  granted  to  the  Indians  "all  the  rights,  privileges,  immu- 
nities and  franchises  held  and  enjoyed  by  free  white  persons"  of  the  said 

1  "Laws  of  the  State  of  Mississippi  passed  at  the  Eleventh  Session  of  the  General 
Assembly,  held  in  the  Town  of  Jackson.  Published  by  authority,  Jackson,  1628": 
pp.  144-145. 

-  Winter  travellers  and  news  then  required  about  two  or  three  weeks  to  proceed 
from  interior  Mississippi  to  Washington,  and  information  regarding  the  step  taken  would 
therefore  have  reached  the  capital  in  the  final  fortnight  of  Adams'  term. 

553 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


163. — A  Concord  coach  on  a  road  in  the  Catskill  Mountains.     About  1840. 

state,  "in  as  full  and  ample  a  manner  as  the  same  can  be  done  by  act  of 
the  General  Assembly." 

"Sec.  3.  Be  it  further  enacted,  That  all  the  laws,  statutes  and  ordi- 
nances now  in  force  in  the  said  state  of  Mississippi,  be  and  the  same  are 
hereby  declared  to  have  full  force,  power  and  operation  over  the  persons 
and  property  of  and  within  the  territory  now  occupied  by  the  said 
Indians.  .  .  . 

"Sec.  5.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  any  person  or  persons  who 
shall  assume  on  him  or  themselves,  and  exercise  in  any  manner  what- 
ever the  office  of  chief,  mingo,  head-man  or  other  post  of  power  estab- 
lished by  the  tribal  statutes,  ordinances  or  customs  of  the  said  Indians, 
and  not  particularly  recognized  by  the  laws  of  this  state,  shall,  on  con- 
viction upon  indictment,  or  presentment  before  a  Court  of  competent 
jurisdiction,  be  fined  in  any  sum  not  exceeding  one  thousand  dollars,  and 
be  imprisoned  any  time  not  exceeding  twelve  months,  at  the  discretion 
of  the  Court  before  whom  conviction  may  be  had."  x 

Alabama's  enactment  in  nullification  of  Federal 
treaties,  passed  in  1829,  was  called  "An  act  to  extend  the 

1  "Laws  of  the  State  of  Mississippi.  Thirteenth  Session.  Jackson,  1830":  pp.  5-6. 
The  parts  here  omitted — sections  4  and  6 — do  not  alter  the  meaning  of  the  remainder. 

554 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

jurisdiction  of  the  State  of  Alabama  over  the  Creek  na- 
tion." It  contained  no  severe  sections  of  individual  appli- 
cation. Two  articles  read: 

"Sec.  6.  That  nothing  in  this  act  shall  be  so  construed  as  to  impose 
taxation  or  military  duty  on  the  Indians,  until  the  same  shall  be  specially 
authorized  by  the  state  legislature." 

"Sec.  8.  That  the  Secretary  of  State  be  required  forthwith  to  fur- 
nish the  agent  of  the  Creek  Indians  and  each  of  our  Senators  in  Con- 
gress, with  a  copy  of  this  act." 

President  Jackson's  first  annual  message1  contained  an 
elaborate  review  of  the  critical  situation  in  the  South  and 
his  attitude  toward  the  problem  presented  by  it.  The 
Executive  and  governmental  position,  as  expounded  by 
him,  was  a  reversal  in  almost  every  particular  of  the 
policy  uniformly  pursued  by  the  nation  from  its  constitu- 
tional organization  up  to  that  time.  The  Governor  of 
Georgia  had  written  to  the  Federal  Secretary  of  War  say- 
ing that  if  the  President  sustained  the  Indians,  "the  conse- 
quences are  inevitable,"  and  that  if  the  Federal  govern- 
ment opposed  by  force  the  occupation  of  the  Cherokee 
region,  then  Georgia  would  be  compelled  to  "war  upon, 
and  shed  the  blood  of  brothers  and  friends."  Jackson 
said  in  his  message: 

It  has  long  been  the  policy  of  Government  to  introduce 
among  them  the  arts  of  civilization,  in  the  hope  of  gradually  reclaiming 
them  from  a  wandering  life.  This  policy  has,  however,  been  coupled 
with  another  wholly  incompatible  with  its  success.  Professing  a  desire 
to  civilize  and  settle  them,  we  have  at  the  same  time  lost  no  opportunity 
to  purchase  their  lands  and  thrust  them  farther  into  the  wilderness.  By 
this  means  they  have  not  only  been  kept  in  a  wrandering  state,  but  been 
led  to  look  upon  us  as  unjust  and  indifferent  to  their  fate.  Thus,  though 
lavish  in  its  expenditures  upon  the  subject,  Government  has  constantly 
defeated  its  own  policy,  and  the  Indians  in  general,  receding  farther  and 
farther  to  the  west,  have  retained  their  savage  habits.2  A  portion,  how- 

1  December  8,   1829. 

2  They   were   abandoning  their   earlier   habits   and   adopting   pastoral   lives   east   of   the 
Mississippi    to    the    utmost    extent    compatible    with    their    surroundings    and    the    influence 
of   the   white  race.      Instances   wherein  this   was   not  true   were   due   to  the    fear,   on   their 
part,  that  it  would  be  useless  and  that  they  would  again  be  evicted. 

555 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

ever,  of  the  Southern  tribes,  having  mingled  much  with  the  whites  and 
made  some  progress  in  the  arts  of  civilized  life,1  have  lately  attempted 
to  erect  an  independent  government  within  the  limits  of  Georgia  and 
Alabama.2  These  states,  claiming  to  be  the  only  sovereigns  within  their 
territories,  extended  their  laws  over  the  Indians,  which  induced  the 
latter  to  call  upon  the  United  States  for  protection. 

"Under  these  circumstance;  the  question  presented  was  whether  the 
general  Government  had  a  right  to  sustain  those  people  in  their  preten- 
sions.3 The  Constitution  declares  that  'no  new  state  shall  be  formed  or 
erected  within  the  jurisdiction  of  any  other  state'  without  the  consent  of 
its  legislature.4  If  the  general  Government  is  not  permitted  to  tolerate 
the  erection  of  a  confederate  state  within  the  territory  of  one  of  the 
members  of  this  Union  against  her  consent,  much  less  could  it  allow  a 
foreign  and  independent  government  to  establish  itself  there  .  .  .  5 

"Actuated  by  this  view  of  the  subject,  I  informed  the  Indians  inhab- 
iting parts  of  Georgia  and  Alabama  that  their  attempt  to  establish  an 
independent  government6  would  not  be  countenanced  by  the  Executive 
of  the  United  States,  and  advised  them  to  emigrate  beyond  the  Missis- 
sippi or  submit  to  the  laws  of  those  states.7 

"Our  conduct  toward  these  people  is  deeply  interesting  to  our  na- 
tional character.  Their  present  condition,  contrasted  with  what  they 
once  were,  makes  a  most  powerful  appeal  to  our  sympathies.  Our  an- 
cestors found  them  the  uncontrolled  possessors  of  these  vast  regions.  By 
persuasion  and  force  they  have  been  made  to  retire  from  river  to  river 
and  from  mountain  to  mountain,  until  some  of  the  tribes  have  become 
extinct  and  others  have  left  but  remnants  to  preserve  for  awhile  their 
once  terrible  names.  Surrounded  by  the  whites  with  their  arts  of  civil- 
ization, which  by  destroying  the  resources  of  the  savage  doom  him  to 
weakness  and  decay,  the  fate  of  the  Mohegan,  the  Narragansett,  and  the 

1  The  progress  made  by  the  southern  red  nations  was  rather  due  to  their  refusal  to 
mingle   with   the   whites   to   the   extent   that   occurred    in   the    North.      The   southern    tribes 
kept    the    bulk    of   the    Caucasians    at    arm's    length,    thus    becoming    less    contaminated    by 
weakening  vices  and  accepting  only  the   useful  teachings  they  could   offer. 

2  The   Cherokees'   independent   government   here   referred   to,   had  been  sixteen   times 
recognized  by  the   Federal   Union  and  had  been  a   matter  of  Congressional  admission  and 
Executive  pronouncement  for   40  years. 

3  Three  years  previously  the  general  government,  through  its  Executive,  had  declared 
its  intention  to  sustain  them,   if  necessary,  by  its  military  power. 

4  The   United   States  had   recognized  the  Cherokees  as  an  independent  state  prior  to 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and  had  dealt  with  them  by  treaty  in   1785.     The  recog- 
nition given  to  them  was  a  continuing  process  whose  origin   antedated   the   Constitution. 

5  As    already    suggested,    a    foreign    and    independent    government    was    already    there 
in    the    case    of    the    Cherokees,    and    it    had    held    treaty    relations    with    the    Congress    of 
the    Confederacy   before    Georgia,   Alabama,    Tennessee   and    North    Carolina    had    relations 
either  with  one  another  or  with  the  Federal  government  under  a  Constitution;  and  before 
Alabama  and  Tennessee  existed. 

The  points  here  advanced — in  connection  with  Jackson's  presentation  of  the  matter 
— are  examples  of  the  difficulties  and  confusion,  mentioned  in  an  earlier  chapter,  in  which 
the  United  States  found  itself  involved  at  a  time  when  the  need  of  unimpeded  communi- 
cation between  all  parts  of  the  country  began  to  be  keenly  felt. 

6  Again   the   President  phrases   his  address   in  a  manner  to   make  it  appear  that  pro- 
fession   of   native   independence   was   a   new   thing. 

7  Thereby  again  wrecking  "the  policy  of  Government"  by  once  more  "thrusting  them 
farther   into  the  wilderness." 

556 


Of  Stages  from  Worth-Canaan  to 
1'orfc.  184 


164. — Stage-coach  way-bill,  or  manifest.  The  driver  of  a  stage,  or  an  agent 
at  the  starting  point,  kept  a  record  of  passengers  on  a  printed  form  like 
this,  and  delivered  the  document  to  the  owner  of  the  line  as  an  account  of 
business  transacted. 

Delaware  is  fast  overtaking  the  Choctaw,  the  Cherokee,  and  the  Creek.1 
That  this  fate  surely  awaits  them  if  they  remain  within  the  limits  of  the 
states  does  not  admit  of  a  doubt.  Humanity  and  national  honor  demand 
that  every  effort  should  be  made  to  avert  so  great  a  calamity.  It  is  too 
late  to  inquire  whether  it  was  just  in  the  United  States  to  include  them 
and  their  territory  within  the  bounds  of  new  states,  whose  limits  they 
could  control.  That  step  can  not  be  retraced.2  A  state  can  not  be  dis- 
membered by  Congress  or  restricted  in  the  exercise  of  her  constitutional 
power.3  But  the  people  of  those  states,  and  of  every  state,  actuated  by 
feelings  of  justice  and  a  regard  for  our  national  honor,  submit  to  you  the 
interesting  question  whether  something  can  not  be  done,  consistently  with 
the  rights  of  the  states,  to  preserve  this  much-injured  race. 

"As  a  means  of  effecting  this  end  I  suggest  for  your  consideration  the 
propriety  of  setting  apart  an  ample  district  west  of  the  Mississippi. 
.  .  .  There  the  benevolent  may  endeavor  to  teach  them  the  arts  of 
civilization,  and,  by  promoting  union  and  harmony  among  them,  to  raise 
up  an  interesting  commonwealth  destined  to  perpetuate  the  race  and  to 
attest  the  humanity  and  justice  of  this  Government. 

"This  emigration  should  be  voluntary,  for  it  would  be  as  cruel  as 
unjust  to  compel  the  aborigines  to  abandon  the  graves  of  their  fathers4 

1  The   southern    Indians   were   no   longer    savages.      Their   man-created    resources    had 
never   been   more   valuable,   or  their   prosperity  and   advancement   more   marked. 

2  The   question   then  remained  whether   or   not  the   United   States   would  abide  by  the 
consequences. 

3  The    affected    southern    states    had    disclaimed    ownership    or    jurisdiction    of    Indian 
territory  until  a  short  time  before. 

4  While  it  is  true  that  the  southern  nations,  like  other   Indians,   did   have  sentimental 
affection    for    their    familiar    territories,    they    were    nevertheless    more    concerned    about 
giving   up   their    homes,   flocks,    farms,    mills    and   the   other   material    improvements   of   a 
generation. 

557 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

and  seek  a  home  in  a  distant  land.  But  they  should  be  distinctly  in- 
formed that  if  they  remain  within  the  limits  of  the  states  they  must  be 
subject  to  their  laws.  In  return  for  their  obedience  as  individuals  they 
will  without  doubt  be  protected  in  the  enjoyment  of  those  possessions 
which  they  have  improved  by  their  industry.1  But  it  seems  to  me  vis- 
ionary to  suppose  that  in  this  state  of  things  claims  can  be  allowed  on 
tracts  of  country  on  which  they  have  neither  dwelt  nor  made  improve- 
ments, merely  because  they  have  seen  them  from  the  mountain  or  passed 
them  in  the  chase.2  Submitting  to  the  laws  of  the  states,  and  receiving, 
like  other  citizens,  protection  in  their  persons  and  property,  they  will  ere 
long  before  merged  in  the  mass  of  our  population."  3 

Following  the  utterance  of  Jackson  the  position 
of  the  Indians  of  the  South  became  more  precarious 
than  before.  This  was  especially  the  case  in  Georgia, 
which  state  had  assumed  a  somewhat  more  advanced  atti- 
tude in  hostility  to  them  than  had  either  Alabama  or 
Mississippi.  All  four  of  the  red  nations  were  dismayed 
by  the  sudden  alteration  in  the  Republic's  relation  to 
them,  but  under  the  counsel  of  their  leading  men  main- 
tained a  quiet  demeanor  and  busied  themselves  with  prep- 
arations for  a  decorous  pleading  of  their  cause  in  what- 
ever quarter  that  method  of  defense  appeared  to  offer  best 
chance  of  success.  Extreme  care  was  taken  by  them  to 
prevent  clashes  of  violence,  and,  in  consequence,  very 
little  disorder  took  place.  White  surveys  of  Indian  lands 
were  resumed  in  some  quarters,  but  without  resistance 
on  the  part  of  the  natives.  The  United  States  for  a  time 
sent  representatives  to  the  South  in  an  effort  to  prevail 

1  State  laws  already  framed   scarcely  warranted   the   President's   conclusion.      In    addi- 
tion to  those  already  quoted,  Georgia  had  organized  a  lottery  with   Creek  lands  as  prizes. 

2  The   southern   nations   made   no   claims  to   territory   that   were   not   defined   by   treaty 


tions  and  opinions  with  a  belief  in  the  sincerity  or  ignorance  of  their  author.  It  is  easier, 
rather,  reluctantly  to  believe  that  Jackson  was  influenced  by  a  knowledge  that  individual 
states  were  in  revolt  against  Federal  authority,  with  civil  war  a  probability  unless  h,- 
yielded,  and  that  he  chose  a  way  out  of  the  complicated  dilemma  which  apparently 
benefited  his  fellow  white  men. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

on  the  nations  to  sell  their  possessions  and  remove  at  once 
to  the  westward  of  the  Mississippi.  These  agents  re- 
ceived instructions  to  work  on  the  principal  men  of  the 
nations  "in  the  line  of  their  prejudices";  to  "enlarge  on 
the  advantages  of  their  condition  in  the  West";  to  "make 
offers  to  them  of  extreme  reservations  in  fee  simple,  and 
other  rewards,  to  obtain  their  acquiescence";  to  "appeal 
to  the  Chiefs  and  other  influential  men,  not  together,  but 
apart,  at  their  own  houses." 

Considerable  quantities  of  gold  were  found  in  the 
streams  of  the  Cherokee  country  at  the  same  time,  and  that 
discovery  further  excited  the  white  population  of  the 
South  and  made  it  still  more  insistent  upon  the  departure 
of  the  Indians.  Many  southern  gold-seekers  flocked  to 
the  wealth-bearing  rivers  and  creeks  in  violation  of  exist- 
ing treaty  regulations.1  The  Cherokees  sent  a  delegation 
to  Washington  to  employ  counsel  and  defend  their  in- 
terests, and  John  Ross,  Chief  Executive  of  the  nation  in 
1830,  convened  the  native  Congress  in  extraordinary 
session. 

Among  the  counsel  before  whom  the  matter  of  Indian 
independence  was  laid  by  the  Cherokees  for  opinion  was 
William  Wirt,  and  his  opinion  read  thus: 

"On  every  ground  of  argument  on  which  I  have  been  enabled,  by  my 
own  reflections  or  the  suggestions  of  others,  to  consider  this  question,  I 
am  of  the  opinion : 

"1.  That  the  Cherokees  are  a  sovereign  nation:  and  that  their  hav- 
ing placed  themselves  under  the  protection  of  the  United  States  does  not 
at  all  impair  their  sovereignty  and  independence  as  a  nation.  'One  com- 
munity may  be  bound  to  another  by  a  very  unequal  alliance,  and  still  be 
a  sovereign  state.  Though  a  weak  state,  in  order  to  provide  for  its  safety, 
should  place  itself  under  the  protection  of  a  more  powerful  one,  yet  ac- 
cording to  Vatell  (B  1.  Ch.  1.  par.  5  and  6)  if  it  reserves  to  itself  the 

1  "We  learn  by  a  gentleman  just  from  Georgia  that  there  are  about  5000  hands  now 
digging  gold  in  the  Cherokee  nation  .  .  .  The  Indians  and  their  agent  begin  to 
dispute  with  the  Georgians  about  the  soil  and  threaten  to  drive  them  off.  The  Georgians 

Promise  resistance  and  will  not  be  easily  removed."     From  the  "Western  Sun"  (Vincennes, 
nd.)   of  May  1,  1830. 

559 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


165. — Changing  horses  at  a  relay  station.  Fresh  animals  were  attached  to  a 
stage  at  intervals  of  ten  or  fifteen  miles.  The  new  team  stood  awaiting 
the  arrival  of  the  coach,  which  was  on  its  way  again  in  one  or  two 
minutes. 

right  of  governing  its  own  body  it  ought  to  be  considered  as  an  inde- 
pendent state.' — 20  Johnson's  Reports  711-712.  Goodell  vs.  Jackson. 

"2.  That  the  territory  of  the  Cherokees  is  not  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  state  of  Georgia,  but  within  the  sole  and  exclusive  jurisdiction  of 
the  Cherokee  nation. 

"3.  That  consequently,  the  state  of  Georgia  has  no  right  to  extend 
her  laws  over  that  territory. 

"4.  That  the  law  of  Georgia  which  has  been  placed  before  me  is 
unconstitutional  and  Void ;  ( 1 )  because  it  is  repugnant  to  the  treaties  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  the  Cherokee  nation,  (2)  because  it  is 
repugnant  to  a  law  of  the  U.  States  passed  in  1802,  entitled  'an  act  to 
regulate  trade  and  intercourse  with  the  Indian  tribes  and  to  preserve 
peace  on  the  frontiers';  (3)  because  it  is  repugnant  to  the  Constitution, 
inasmuch  as  it  impairs  the  obligation  of  all  the  contracts  arising  under 
the  treaties  with  the  Cherokees:  and  affects  moreover  to  regulate  inter- 
course with  an  Indian  tribe,  a  power  which  belongs  exclusively  to 
Congress. 

"Baltimore,  June  20,  1830.  WILLIAM  WIRT." 

The  policy  of  the  Jackson  administration  was  ex- 
plained and  defended  at  this  time  by  the  Secretary  of 
War,  and  extracts  from  his  argument1  are  here  given : 

1  Contained  in  a  letter  written  by  Secretary  Eaton,  on  June  30,  1SSO,  to  Eli  Baldwin, 
Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Indian  Board. 

560 


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rt  3 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"His  [President  Jackson's]  fears  are  that  strife,  difficulty  and  dan- 
gers may  be  consequent  upon  a  disposition  on  their  part  to  remain  where 
they  are ; 1  and  these  he  has  an  anxious  desire  to  avert,  if  within  his 
power,  through  the  exercise  of  any  legitimate  means." 

"It  is  high  time  they  were  aroused  to  a  sense  of  their  actual  and  true 
condition." 

"Every  American  would  desire  to  preserve,  not  to  oppress  them. 
They  will  never  be  driven  from  their  homes." 

"It  is  not  in  his  power  to  interfere  with  the  exercise  of  the  sovereign 
authority  of  a  state,  to  prevent  the  extension  of  their  laws  within  their 
own  territorial  limits."  2 

"Can  he  say  to  Georgia,  you  shall  not  consider  an  Indian  a  citizen 
and  answerable  to  her  civil  and  criminal  jurisdiction?"3 

"  .  .  .  So  far,  then,  as  the  government  of  the  United  States  is  con- 
cerned there  is  no  course  under  action,  or  in  anticipation,  calculated  to 
induce  to  any  other  than  a  voluntary  departure."  * 

"If  a  desire  to  harass  and  ultimately  to  destroy  was  the  governing 
motive,  the  argument  to  be  adduced  to  them  would  be  not  to  remove,  but 
remain  where  they  are."  ! 

Congress  in  the  meantime  had  passed  a  general  law6 
providing  for  concentrating  the  Indians  in  a  region  west 
of  the  Mississippi.  The  national  legislature  did  not  make 
their  migration  obligatory,  but  the  bill  was  originally 
drawn  without  reference  to  existing  treaties  with  the  na- 
tives. This  defect  was  altered  by  an  amendment  reading: 
"Provided,  that  nothing  in  this  act  contained  shall  be 
construed  as  authorizing  or  directing  the  violation  of  any 
existing  treaty  between  the  United  States  and  any  of  the 
Indian  tribes."  The  law  also  said:  "It  shall  and  may 
be  lawful  for  the  President  solemnly  to  assure  the  tribe  or 
nation  with  which  the  exchange  is  made,  that  the  United 

1  This  way  of  stating  the  question  tended  to  place  responsibility  on  the  natives   for 
strife   which   would  have  come  through  the   determination   of  the   white   race   to   dispossess 
them. 

2  The  Secretary  of  War  here  assumes  that  the  sovereignty  of  the  affected  states  did 
extend   over   the    Indian   possessions,   w..ich    was   the   princ.pal   and   newly   arisen   point   of 
dispute. 

3  Such,  nevertheless,  had  been  the  position  of  both  Georgia  and  of  the  United  States 
for  the  thirty-eight  years  between    1789  and   1827. 

4  Scarcely  an   accurate   statement.     As  soon   as   Georgia  had   officially   notified   Jackson 
of  her  claim  to  sovereignty  over  the  Cherokee  possessions  he  withdrew  from  the  Cherokee 
boundary  those  Federal  troops  which  had  been  previously  stationed  there  to  prevent  white 
intrusion   on   Indian  land.      Lack  of  protection   was  what  made  departure  compulsory. 

5  This  was  correct  on  the  presumption  that  the  United   States  would   no  longer  carry 
out  its  treaty  obligations,  but  leave  the  natives  under  the  laws  of  the  states. 

6  Approved   May  28,   1830. 

562 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

States  will  forever  secure  and  guarantee  to  them  and  their 
heirs  or  successors,  the  country  so  exchanged  with  them."1 
The  passage  of  the  law  of  1830  by  Congress  was  hailed 
with  relief  by  the  white  population  of  the  country,  which 
had  likewise  looked  with  approval  on  the  attitude  of 
President  Jackson.'  For  several  years  the  Indian  problem 
had  been  one  of  the  matters  chiefly  engaging  public  atten- 
tion, and  it  was  realized  that  some  definite  settlement  of 
it  must  speedily  be  made.  The  new  law,  it  was  hoped, 
gave  promise  of  that  result.  It  had  also  been  generally 
admitted  that  civil  strife  was  in  sight  if  the  South  was 
not  permitted  to  have  its  way.  An  example  of  the  usual 
newspaper  comment  of  the  day  will  best  indicate  popular 
feeling: 

"The  great  Indian  question  has  been  finally  settled,  leaving  the  red 
man  the  choice  of  remaining  where  he  is,  subject  only  to  the  laws  of  the 
state  or  territory  in  which  he  resides  in  common  with  the  white  inhabi- 
tants, or  of  removing  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi  under  the  bounty 
and  protection  of  the  general  government,  and  receiving  there  in  ex- 
change for  the  land  he  quits  a  much  wider  territory,  healthier  climate 
and  more  abundant  and  profitable  hunting  grounds.  This  measure  was 
projected  under  the  former  administrations,  and  its  execution  made  nec- 
essary at  this  time  to  avoid  the  more  serious  alternative  of  civil  war. 
Men  the  best  acquainted  with  the  subject  in  all  its  bearings  consider  the 
act  equally  the  dictate  of  humanity  as  of  necessity."3 

When  the  Cherokee  legislature  had  assembled  in  ex- 
traordinary session4  to  consider  the  course  of  the  nation 
in  the  crisis  that  had  arisen,  Ross,  the  Executive,  delivered 
to  it  the  subjoined  message:* 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"To  the  Committee  and  Council,  in  General  Council  convened: 

"Friends  and  Fellow  Citizens: — The  constituted  authorities  of 
Georgia  having  assumed  .the  power  to  exercise  sovereign  jurisdiction 
over  a  large  portion  of  our  Territory,  and  our  Political  Father,  the  Chief 
Magistrate  of  the  United  States,  having  declared  that  he  possesses  no 
power  to  oppose  or  interfere  with  Georgia  in  this  matter,  our  relations 
with  the  U.  States  are  placed  in  a  strange  dilemma.  The  grave  aspect 
of  this  picture  calls  for  your  calm  and  serious  reflections.  I  have  there- 
fore deemed  it  my  incumbent  duty,  on  this  extraordinary  occasion,  to 
convene  the  General  Council  of  the  Cherokee  Nation. 

"The  prayers  of  our  memorials  before  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  have  not  been  answered.  But  it  is  edifying  to  know  that  numer- 
ous similar  petitions  from  various  sections  of  the  United  States  have 
been  presented  in  favor  of  our  cause  by  a  large  portion  of  the  most  re- 
spectable class  of  the  community,  and  that  our  rights  have  been  ably 
vindicated  in  Congress  by  some  of  the  most  distinguished  statesmen.  But 
notwithstanding  the  unanswerable  arguments  which  have  been  advanced 
under  these  appeals,  there  seems  to  have  been  a  settled  determination,  by 
a  small  majority  in  Congress,  to  make  further  efforts  to  bring  about  a 
removal  of  all  the  Indians  east  of  the  Mississippi  beyond  that  great  river, 
by  making  the  question  a  general  one,  and  acting  upon  the  principles  of 
policy  and  expediency.  The  respective  claims  and  rights  of  each  tribe 
under  existing  treaties  with  the  United  States  were  viewed  only  as  a  sec- 
ondary consideration.  Consequently  an  act  has  been  passed  'To  provide 
for  an  exchange  of  lands  with  the  Indians  residing  in  any  of  the  states 
or  territories,  and  for  their  removal  west  of  the  river  Mississippi.'  The 
House  of  Representatives,  however,  by  a  very  large  majority,  adopted 
this  amendment,  which  has  been  accepted  by  the  Senate,  'Provided  that 
nothing  in  this  act  shall  be  construed  as  authorizing  or  directing  the  vio- 
lation of  any  existing  treaty  between  the  United  States  and  any  of  the 
Indian  tribes.' 

"It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  we  find  in  the  reports  of  some  of  the 
acting  agents  of  the  general  government  and  other  designing  and  inter- 
ested individuals  that  our  true  motives,  disposition  and  condition  have 
been  grossly  perverted  and  misrepresented.  This  may  in  part  be  attrib- 
uted to  a  want  of  correct  and  full  information  upon  the  points  of  which 
they  pretend  to  speak,  and  in  some  respects  to  an  inclination  to  deceive 
the  public  with  the  view  of  effecting  certain  political  ends. 

"The  fee  simple  title  to  the  soil  has  been  vainly  asserted  to  be  in  the 
people  of  Georgia;  and  that  state  has  arrogated  to  herself  the  power  to 
exercise  sovereign  jurisdiction  over  us,  and  by  legislative  enactments  has 
declared  all  our  laws,  ordinances,  orders,  regulations  and  usages  to  be 
null  and  void,  and  peremptorily  demands  submission  to  her  prescriptive 
and  oppressive  laws  under  the  most  degrading  circumstances.  She  has 
pointed  to  her  jails,  penitentiary  and  gallows  for  practicing  obedience  to 

564 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

our  own  laws,  and  independent  of  all  our  treaties  with  the  United 
States  and  the  acts  of  Congress  which  have  been  passed  for  the  protec- 
tion of  our  individual  and  national  rights,  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the 
Union  has  warned  us  against  any  hope  of  interference  on  his  part  with 
Georgia  in  the  exercise  of  this  power;  yet  he  says  that  such  power  as 
the  laws  give  him,  for  our  protection  shall  be  executed  for  our  benefit,  and 
this  will  not  fail  to  be  exercised  in  keeping  out  intruders ;  beyond  this  he 
cannot  go.  An  officer  commanding  a  detachment  of  U.  States'  troops, 


Passengers  sre.  rfijur^U'tl  tn  t^nntaitH  wulk,  OTIC  Cenlpartirnlnrly  objects. 
167. — A   frequent   experience.     But  the    Gent    always    got  out   sooner   or    later. 

who  has  been  ordered  into  the  nation,  as  it  is  said,  for  the  purpose  of 
removing  intruders,  has  communicated  to  the  Cherokees  at  the  gold 
mines  the  following  notice: 

"  'An  arrangement  has  been  entered  into  by  which  there  will  be 
mutual  assistance  between  the  U.  States'  troops  and  the  civil  authority 
of  Georgia  in  all  civil  processes,  the  jurisdiction  of  Georgia  having  been 
extended  over  the  chartered  limits,  and  all  the  natives  are  hereby  ad- 
vised to  return  to  their  homes1  and  submit  to  the  proclamation  of  the 
state  authority.' 

(Signed)       E.  TRAINER,  Lieut.  Com'g. 

'  'P.  S.  They  cannot  be  supported  any  longer  in  anything  incon- 
sistent with  the  laws  of  the  state.' 

"Thus  you  will  see  that  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  Cherokee 
people  are  most  grievously  assailed. 

"Our  delegation2  were  authorized,  if  it  should  become  necessary,  to 

1  Many  of  the  Indians  were  digging  gold  at  the  mines  discovered  in  their  territory. 

2  The  national  delegation  sent  to  Washington. 

565 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL   IN  AMERICA 

consult  and  employ  counsel  to  defend  our  cause  before  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  in  which  tribunal,  as  the  conservatory  of  the 
Constitution,  treaties  and  laws  of  the  Union,  \ve  can  yet  hope  for  justice, 
and  to  which  we  should  fearlessly  and  firmly  appeal.  I  would,  there- 
fore, recommend  the  expediency  of  passing  a  law  authorizing  some  per- 
son to  assert  the  rights  of  the  Cherokee  nation  in  all  the  courts  of  law 
and  equity  in  the  United  States;  also  to  address  the  President  of  the 
United  States  frankly,  openly  and  respectfully  on  the  subject  of  our 
unhappy  situation,  and  request  his  paternal  interference  in  all  points  as 
far  as  the  treaties  and  laws  of  the  United  States  acknowledge  and  secure 
to  us  our  rights;  until  the  controversy  at  issue  with  Georgia  be  decided 
by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

"I  would  further  submit  for  your  consideration  the  necessity  of 
adopting  some  suitable  and  proper  regulations  for  the  observance  of  our 
citizens  in  working  the  gold  mines  of  the  nation  and  other  valuable  min- 
erals, such  as  the  public  interest  and  peace  and  good  order  of  society 
may  seem  to  require. 

"Confiding  in  the  superintending  care  of  a  kind  providence  we 
should  not  despair,  even  should  we  for  a  season  be  plunged  into  the  cells 
of  Georgia's  prisons.  Means  for  our  deliverance  may  yet  be  found.  Let 
us  not  forget  the  circumstance  related  in  Holy  Writ,  of  the  safe  passage 
of  the  children  of  Israel  through  the  crystal  walls  of  the  Red  Sea  and 
the  fate  of  their  wicked  pursuers ;  let  our  faith  in  the  unsearchable  mys- 
teries of  an  Omnipotent  and  all-wise  Being  be  unshaken ;  for  in  the  ap- 
pearance of  impossibilities  there  is  still  hope. 

"NEW  ECHOTA,  C.  N.,  July  11,  1830.  JOHN  Ross." 

The  official  messages,  protests  and  other  papers  of  the 
Indians1  at  this  time  were  occasionally  characterized  in 
Caucasian  state  documents  as  "tricks  of  vulgar  cunning" 
or  "insults  from  the  polluted  lips  of  outcasts  and  vaga- 
bonds." But  such  instances  were  fortunately  rare.  Their 
strength  and  sincerity  made  it  impossible  to  deal  lightly 
with  them,  however  great  might  be  the  opposition  to  the 
arguments  and  claims  they  advanced. 

Meanwhile  the  Choctaw  National  Council  had  also 
met2  to  take  action  due  to  Mississippi's  claim  of  jurisdic- 
tion over  the  nation  and  Jackson's  endorsement  of  Missis- 

1  Those    of    the    Cherokees    were    printed    in    their    newspaper,    often    in    the    English 
language.     Some  of  the  Cherokee  state  papers  are  also  contained  in  the  second  edition  of 
Armroyd's    "Connected    View    of    the    Whole    Internal    Navigation    of    the    United    States. 
Philadelphia,   1830." 

2  On  March  15,  1830. 

566 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


168. — A  stage-coach  struck  by   a   railway  train   and  left  on  the   roadside.     Un- 
signed water-color  sketch,  perhaps  made  by  an  unhurt  traveller,  while  sit- 
ting on  a  stump,  as  a  memento  of  his  journey.     Date,  about  1845. 

sippi's  position.  The  proceedings  of  the  Choctaws  have 
been  preserved  in  a  letter  published  in  a  number  of  news- 
papers at  the  time.1  It  reads: 

"The  National  Council  met  on  Monday  the  15th  day  of  March  past, 
to  determine  the  future  course  in  this  great  crisis  of  their  national  ex- 
istence. 

"On  the  evening  of  the  first  day  of  the  Council  the  Captains  re- 
elected  Greenwood  Leflore  Chief  of  the  Western  District  without  a  dis- 
senting voice.  He  was  then  carried  in  triumph  through  the  Captains 
of  the  other  districts  and  a  large  assembly  of  Warriors,  his  officers  sing- 
ing a  hymn  in  their  native  language ;  they  then  prostrated  themselves 
before  the  Eternal,  when  their  Chief-elect  closed  the  solemn  scene  by  an 
affecting  prayer  in  behalf  of  his  nation. 

1  Among  them  the  Natchez  (Miss.)  "Galaxy"  and  Vincennes  (Ind.)  "Western  Sun." 
The  text  as  here  given  is  from  the  "Western  Sun"  of  May  8,  1830. 

567 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"On  the  forenoon  of  the  second  day  of  the  Council  (the  16th)  the 
Chiefs  of  the  other  two  districts  came  forward  with  their  Captains  and 
Warriors,  resigned  their  several  offices,  and  unanimously  elected  Green- 
wood Leflore  the  Chief  of  the  whole  nation.  Then  followed  a  pleasant 
season  of  rejoicings,  and  the  exercises  of  the  forenoon  closed  by  their 
Chief-elect  in  solemn  prayer  in  which  the  whole  assembly  united  as  with 
the  heart  of  one  man. 

"In  the  afternoon  the  National  Council  was  organized,  and  the  im- 
portant object  of  its  call  introduced  by  the  Chief. 

"The  Chief  presented  a  concise  view  of  the  difficulties  of  their  situa- 
tion, and  the  alternatives  which  were  before  them,  and  the  necessity  of 
immediate  choice.  The  address  of  the  Chief  was  followed  by  one  from 
an  aged  warrior  who  had  fought  under  General  Jackson,  and  another 
from  a  warrior  still  older  who  fought  under  General  Wayne.1  The  dis- 
cussion continued  to  a  late  hour,  when  the  vote  being  taken  was  found 
in  favor  of  emigration. 

"On  the  17th  articles  of  a  treaty  were  prepared,2  and  on  that  night 
signed  by  the  Chief,  the  two  late  Chiefs,  the  Captains,  and  two  or  three 
hundred  principal  warriors.  .  .  . 

"The  Chief  directed  all  his  Captains  to  execute  faithfully  the  laws 
of  the  nation,  not  in  opposition  to  Mississippi,  but  with  belief  that  Mis- 
sissippi would  not  interfere  when  she  discovered  the  Choctaws  were 
endeavoring  to  get  out  of  her  way. 

"The  Chief  expressed  a  determination  not  to  emigrate  with  a  poor, 
penniless  and  ruined  people. 

"Throughout  the  whole  proceeding  the  spirit  of  brotherly  kindness 
and  fervent  piety  were  evinced,  and  the  full  faith  that  the  Great  Spirit 
would  be  with  them  in  their  removal  and  bless  them  in  their  new  home." 

The  Choctaws  numbered  not  far  from  20,000  souls, 
and  then  owned  nearly  one-third  of  Mississippi  and  some 
one  thousand  four  hundred  square  miles  of  territory  in 
Alabama.  They  asked  about  one  million  dollars  for  their 
eastern  possessions,  in  addition  to  unimproved  lands  in 
the  West. 

When  Jackson  submitted  the  Choctaw  proposals  to 
the  Senate,3  he  said: 

"It  will  be  seen  that  the  pecuniary  stipulations  are  large;  and  in 
bringing  this  subject  to  the  consideration  of  the  Senate  I  may  be  allowed 

1  Some  of  the  southern  Indians  fought  with  the  United  States  under  Wayne  against 
the  northern  red  confederation  in  the  struggle  that  broke  the  Indian  power  of  the   North- 
west Territory. 

2  Xot  the  treaty  itself,  but  the  Choctaw  terms  for  a  treaty. 

3  In  a  special  message  on  May  6,  1830. 

568 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

to  remark  that  the  amount  of  money  which  may  be  secured  to  be  paid 
should,  in  my  judgment,  be  viewed  as  of  minor  importance.  .  .  .  The 
great  desideratum  is  the  removal  of  the  Indians  and  the  settlement  of 
the  perplexing  question  involved  in  their  present  location — a  question  in 
which  several  of  the  states  of  this  Union  have  the  deepest  interest,  and 
which,  if  left  undecided  much  longer,  may  eventuate  in  serious  injury 
to  the  Indians."  * 

A  treaty  with  the  Choctaws  was  concluded  later  in  the 
same  year2  by  whose  terms  the  nation  ceded  to  the  United 


TONTI1VE    HOTEL,    NEW  HAVElV.Ct. 

169. — Stages    arriving   and    departing   from    a   typical    city   tavern    of   the    best 
sort.     The  large  inns  of  the  tcwns  had  begun  to  call  themselves  hotels. 

States  all  their  country  east  of  the  Mississippi.  The 
United  States,  on  its  part,  reaffirmed  the  nationality  of  the 
Choctaws  which  it  had  recently  denied,  acknowledged 
their  civilized  state  and  re-created,  in  the  West,  the  same 
native  conditions  that  had  until  then  existed  in  the  East. 

1  Jackson's    fear    or    expectation    of   white   violence    is    indicated. 

2  September   27,   18SO.     As   sent   to   the   Senate   by  the   President   it   contained   a   state- 
ment saying  he  could  not  protect  the  Choctaws  from   Mississippi   laws.     This  was  stricken 
out  by  the   Senate,  possibly  because  of  Adams'  recent  successful  protection  of  the  Creeks 
from  Georgia  laws. 

569 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

The  principal  paragraphs  by  which  this  state  of  affairs 
was  brought  about  were: 

"Article  IV.  The  Government  and  people  of  the  United  States  are 
hereby  obliged  to  secure  to  the  Choctaw  Nation  of  Red  People  the  juris- 
diction and  government  of  all  the  persons  and  property  that  may  be 
within  their  limits  west,  so  that  no  territory  or  state  shall  ever  have  a 
right  to  pass  laws  for  the  government  of  the  Choctaw  Nation  of  Red 
People  and  their  descendants ;  and  that  no  part  of  the  land  granted  to 
them  shall  ever  be  embraced  in  any  Territory  or  State ;  but  the  United 
States  shall  forever  secure  such  Choctaw  Nation  from,  and  against,  all 
laws  except  such  as  from  time  to  time  may  be  enacted  in  their  own 
National  Councils,  not  inconsistent  with  the  Constitution,  Treaties  and 
laws  of  the  United  States.  .  . 

"Article  V.  ...  No  war  shall  be  undertaken  or  prosecuted  by 
said  Choctaw  Nation  but  by  declaration  made  in  full  Council,  and  to 
be  approved  by  the  United  States  unless  it  be  in  self  defense  against  an 
open  rebellion  or  against  an  enemy  marching  into  their  country,  in 
which  case  they  shall  defend  until  the  United  States  are  advised  thereof."1 

"Article  XXII.  The  Chiefs  of  the  Choctaws  have  suggested  that 
their  people  are  in  a  state  of  rapid  advancement  in  education  and  refine- 
ment, and  have  expressed  a  solicitude  that  they  might  have  the  privilege 
of  a  Delegate  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Representatives  extended  to 
them.  The  Commissioners  do  not  feel  that  they  can  under  a  treaty 
stipulation  accede  to  the  request,  but  at  their  desire  present  it  in  the 
Treaty,  that  Congress  may  consider  of,  and  decide  the  application." 

The  condition  of  Choctaw  society  at  this  time  may  be 
understood  from  further  treaty  provisos  in  which  they 
insisted  on  three  churches  in  their  new  country;  the  erec- 
tion of  a  national  Council  House;  public  schoolhouses 
for  their  children;  $50,000  for  school  teachers'  salaries; 
blacksmiths;  a  millwright;  one  thousand  carding  ma- 
chines; the  same  number  of  spinning  wheels;  four  hun- 
dred looms;  a  thousand  plows;  quantities  of  other  agricul- 
tural implements;  three  tons  of  iron  and  six  hundred 
pounds  of  steel  annually  for  sixteen  years;  and  the  educa- 

1  Treaty  clauses  like  these  do  much  to  explain  the  later  action  of  many  of  the 
transplanted  Indians  and  tribes  native  to  the  West  when  the  whites  began  their  march 
across  the  plains  toward  the  Pacific.  The  whites  sometimes  comported  themselves  as  enemies 
or  invaders  during  the  western  migrations,  and  the  Indians  believed,  in  view  of  such 
treaties,  that  they  were  defending  themselves  and  their  territories. 

570 


»'*.«>.*•"-'« 

1  *v'^UV-     '^ 


GREAT  UNITED  STATES  MAIL  LINES, 

TO  THE  SOUTH  &  WEST, 

VIA. 

BAT1MORE  &  OHIO  R.  R,  TO  CUMBERLAND, 

AND 

NATIONAL  ROAtt  W  WHIIUNi. 

SIX  DAILY  LINES  of  Mai 

leave  Cumberland  every  Evening 
Cars  at  that  place,  for  I'ittshurt 


WM-ty 


Louisville,  St.  Louis  and  New  Or3 
bnrg  or  Wheeling  in  forty-four  hours.  P 
this  route  will  he  out  one  nijjhtonly.  Let 
twice  daily,  Winter  and  Summer.  For  Si 
Tickets,  or  entire  Coaches,  ipply  al  the  (n 
and  St'io-f-  Oilici-  "'  15  S  .  '  -"-'"'; 

Road    Office    i:;:^  \     Lh    md    v  irket-Stn 
Companies, 

T, 

N.  B, 

^mymzm 


T.  B 


'•**f5*(7 


nn 

'••-•T>:"?Jf?i5 


g^^S 


•-'.*-•, 


&tmm 

<-i*f*r<-v 


170. — A  route  to  the  Middle  West  in  1852.  Advertisement  showing  the  coop- 
eration of  stage-coaches  and  railways.  The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  road  had 
been  opened  to  Cumberland,  and  by  taking  a  coach  at  that  town  a  traveller 
from  the  East  might  reach  Pittsburgh  in  44  hours.  Thence,  by  stage,  he 
could  continue  to  Cincinnati  in  about  three  days  more,  or  to  St.  Louis  in 
about  seven  days. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

tion  of  forty  selected  Choctaw  youths  each  year  in  Cau- 
casian institutions.1 

All  efforts  designed  to  persuade  the  Chickasaws  into 
migration  having  failed,  President  Jackson  journeyed  in 
person  to  meet  them  and  discuss  the  question.  That  nation 
had  for  some  years  suffered  much  annoyance  from  white 
intrusion  and  cheating,  and  being  desirous  of  escape  from 
those  troubles  had  expressed  a  willingness,  under  certain 
stated  conditions,  to  give  up  its  possessions  in  Mississippi 
and  Alabama.  The  terms  under  which  it  would  consent 
to  retire  westward  had  been  named  in  an  address  issued 
in  1827,2  and  the  chief  provisions  therein  contained  were 
these: 

".  .  .  As  you  have  pointed  us  out  a  country  on  the  north  of  the 
State  of  Missouri,  .  .  .  and  speak  well  of  it,  we  agree,  first  and  foremost, 
to  go  and  look  at  it,  and  any  other  country  that  we  may  choose.  When 
twelve  of  our  people — three  from  each  district — have  examined  it, 
assisted  by  a  scientific  doctor  to  see  to  our  health,  and  by  three  good 
white  men  to  be  selected  by  ourselves,  and  three  of  your  men  of  science 
from  Washington  or  elsewhere — we  say,  when  we  have  examined  it ; 
if  we  like  it,  if  its  soil  is  good  and  well  wooded,  if  water  is  plenty  and 
good,  we  will  agree  to  exchange,  acre  for  acre:  provided  you  on  your 
part  will  mark  out  the  country  and  divide  it  into  counties,  and  leave 
a  place  in  the  center  for  a  seat  of  government,  and  then  drive  everybody 
off  of  it,  and  guaranty  it  to  us  for  ever ;  and,  as  soon  as  may  be,  divide  it 
for  us  into  farms;  .  .  .  and  provided  also,  that  in  addition  you 
examine  our  houses,  and  mills,  and  fences,  and  our  work-shops  here ; 
also  our  orchards,  and  build  and  put  up  and  plant  as  good  there,  at 
such  places  within  the  territory  as  we  may  choose ;  also,  provided  you 
count  our  stocks  here,  and  put  an  equal  number,  and  of  each  kind, 
within  their  respective  owners'  limits  there;  also,  provided  you  establish 
schools  in  all  the  counties  sufficient  for  the  education  of  our  children 

1  In   the  annual   Executive   message  to  the   Cherokee   National   Council  in   1828  it  was 
stated   that   to    each   Cherokee   citizen   consenting   to    remove   west    of    the    Mississippi    the 
United   States   had   offered   "a  bounty  consisting  of  a   rifle  gun,   a  blanket,  a   steel   trap,   a 
brass  kettle  and  five  pounds  of  tobacco."     In  commenting  on  this  proposition  the  msssage 
said:     "Such  are  the  temptations  offered  to  induce  us  to  leave  our  friends,  our  relatives, 
our    houses,    our    cultivated    farms,    our    country,    and    everything   endeared    to    us   by    the 
progress  of  civilization. "     The  offer  was  described  as  a   "burlesque."      It  was  made  about 
three  years  after  the  Cherokee  civilization  was  icported  to  the  Secretary  of  War  by  Com- 
missioner McKenney. 

2  On  October  9.     The  Chickasaw  statement  was  incorporated  by  Armroyd  in  his  "Con- 
nected   View   of   the   \Yhole    Internal    Navigation    of   the    United    States.      Second    Edition. 
Phila.,  1830":   pp.  516-8,  from  which  the  extracts  here  given  are  quoted. 

572 


MML  ST&GM  LINES, 

Between  Zaneaville,  (Ohio,)  &  Maysville;  (Kentucky.) 


The  Bainbridge  and  Cincinnati,  Lancaster  and  Co- 
lumbus  Pilot  line  of  four  horse  Post  Coaches,  leaves 
Zanesvilie  every  morning  at  8  o'clock,  running  through 
Lancaster,  Chillicothe  and  Bainbridge  to  Maysville, 
(Ken.)  connecting  at  Bainbridge  with  his  line  to  Cincin- 
nati,  through  to  Maysville  in  36  hoars,  or  to  Cincinnati 
in  48  hours. 

$CJ*  For  seats  in  Zanesvilie,  apply  at  the  office  o 
Moore  fy>  Co>s  General  Stage  Office,  National  House, 

|C7*  The  subscriber  informs  t|ie  public,  that  he  has  the 
road  stocked  with  the  best  horses, 'coaches  and  drivers, 
the  country  atords  |  and  there  shall  be  nothing  wanting 
on  his  part,  to  add  to  the  comfort  and  convenience  of  ail 
who  may  please  to  patronize  him,' 

D.  TALLMABGHE, 

Zanesvitle,  Ohio. 

.••'.•   :.!'       •  .-    ':'.  i  ?",•>: '. ;  •::.'.'"'  ""'^'Hf     :-  "  '*.  '•!'.,''      .      '"  "i.    •••       .       <    •'•'-••    ••"•.       .     :'..'./   /•,'..''•'  ft  ''••  -  n"^fi 

171. — Stages  were  running  through  Ohio  for  twenty-five  years  before  railroads 
crossed  the  state,  and  primitive  stage  wagons  had  appeared  on  the  same 
roads  as  early  as  3808.  The  line  advertised  by  Tallmadge,  in  1837,  ran  its 
vehicles  over  the  road  originally  called  Zane's  Trace.  According  to  the 
schedule  here  given  the  traveller  was  carried  about  two-thirds  of  the  dis- 
tance across  Ohio  in  two  days.  One  of  the  principal  overland  routes  to 
Cincinnati  and  Louisville  before  the  davs  of  the  locomotive. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

and  to  teach  our  girls  how  to  spin  and  manage  household  affairs ;  and 
provided,  also,  you  send  a  sufficient  force  there  to  ensure  our  protection, 
and  organize  our  people  into  companies  like  your  militia;  .  .  .  and 
provided  that  you  establish  a  government  over  us  in  all  respects  like 
one  of  your  territories,  Michigan,  for  example,  and  give  the  right  of 
suffrage  to  our  people  as  they  shall  be  prepared,  by  education,  to  vote 
and  act ;  and  allow  us  after  the  territory  is  organized  a  delegate  like 
your  territories  enjoy,  in  Congress:  .  .  .  give  us  the  privileges  of 
men  .  .  .  and  we  will  treat  for  exchange  upon  the  above  basis. 

"Should  our  offer  not  be  accepted,  then  we  are  done.  We  hope 
to  be  let  alone  where  we  are,  and  that  your  people  will  be  made  to 
treat  us  like  men  and  Christians,  and  not  like  dogs.  We  tell  you, 
now,  we  want  to  make  our  children  men  and  women,  and  to  raise  them 
as  high  as  yours  in  privileges  .  .  . 

"Understand  nothing  is  done  unless  the  country  we  go  to  look  at 
suits,  and  not  then  unless  all  we  require  is  agreed  to  on  your  part.  .  ." 

At  the  time  the  Chickasaws  made  the  statement  of 
their  wishes  and  future  hopes  they  were  again  on  the 
up-grade  with  regard  to  numbers,  having  increased  in 
population  to  the  extent  of  about  four  hundred  souls 
during  the  previous  five  or  six  years.1  They  lived  in  eight 
hundred  houses  of  an  average  cost  of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  each,  though  some  of  their  dwellings  were  worth 
from  a  thousand  to  two  thousand  dollars.  Most  of  the 
native  farm  properties  had  barns,  corn-cribs  and  other 
out-buildings.  The  nation  also  possessed  ten  mills,  about 
fifty  mechanical  workshops  of  various  sorts  and  a  few 
orchards.  Their  live  stock  averaged  two  horses,  two  cows, 
five  hogs  and  a  flock  of  chickens  to  each  householder. 
The  total  value  of  their  stock,  in  that  era  of  cheap  prices, 
was  about  eighty-four  thousand  dollars.  The  value  of  the 
fences  they  had  built  around  their  farms  was  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars.2 

They  maintained  taverns  and  ferries  along  the  roads 

1  As  reported  to  Secretary  of  War  Barbour  by  Indian  Agent  McKenney  in  his  com- 
munication of  October  10,  1827. 

-  This  summary  of  Chickasaw  affairs  in  1827  is  condensed  from  McKenney's  reports. 
For  further  information  dealing  with  the  same  nation's  condition  in  1830 — the  year  of 
Jackson's  visit  to  them — see  "Report  of  John  L.  Allen,  United  States  Sub-Agent  among 
the  Chickasaws.  February  7,  1830." 

574 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

granted  by  them  for  the  privilege  of  white  travel  through 
their  territories,  and,  like  the  Cherokees  and  Choctaws, 
exported  a  part  of  their  agricultural  produce  and  domes- 
tic manufactures  to  neighboring  white  states. 

President  Jackson  went  in  person  to  see  these  men,  and 
spoke  thus  to  them:1 

"Friends  and  Brothers:  Your  great  father  is  rejoiced  once  more 
to  meet,  and  to  have  it  in  his  power  to  assure  you  of  his  continued 
friendship  and  good-will  .  .  . 

"By  a  communication  from  your  elder  brethren  and  neighbors,  the 
Choctaws,  during  the  last  winter,  your  great  father  learned  that  in 
consequence  of  the  laws  of  Mississippi  being  extended  over  them,  they 
were  in  great  alarm;  and  of  their  own  free  will,  and  without  any 
application  from  him,  they  asked  to  leave  their  country  and  retire  across 
the  Mississippi  river  .  .  . 

"By  an  act  of  Congress  it  was  placed  in  his  power  to  extend  justice 
to  the  Indians  .  .  .  and  to  give  them  a  grant  for  lands  which  should 
endure  'as  long  as  the  grass  grows  or  water  runs.'  A  determination 
was  taken  immediately  to  advise  his  red  children  of  the  means  which 
were  thus  placed  at  his  disposal  to  render  them  happy  and  preserve 
them  as  a  nation.  It  was  for  this  that  he  asked  his  Chickasaw  and 
other  friends  to  meet  him  here.2  You  have  come,  and  your  great  father 
rejoices  to  tell  you  through  his  Commissioners  the  truth,  and  point  you 
to  a  course  which  cannot  fail  to  make  you  a  happy  and  prosperous 
people.  Hear  and  deliberate  well  on  what  he  shall  say,  and  under 
the  exercise  of  your  own  reason  and  matured  judgment,  determine  what 
may  appear  to  you  best  to  be  done  for  the  benefit  of  yourselves  and  your 
children. 

Brothers:  You  have  long  dwelt  upon  the  soil  you  occupy,  and  in 
early  times  before  the  white  man  kindled  his  fires  too  near  to  yours,  and 
by  settling  around,  narrowed  down  the  limits  of  your  chase,  you  were, 
though  uninstructed,  yet  a  happy  people.  Now  your  white  brothers  are 
around  you.  States  have  been  erected  within  your  ancient  limits,3  which 
claim  a  right  to  govern  and  control  your  people  as  they  do  their  own 
citizens,  and  to  make  them  answerable  to  their  civil  and  criminal  codes. 

1  At  Franklin,  Tennessee,  where  the   Delegates  of  the  nation   met   him   on   August   23, 
1830.     The  speech   is   not  contained   in  biographies   of  Jackson,   in   Cushman's   "History   of 
the  Choctaw,   Chickasaw  and   Natchez   Indians,"  or   in   other  works  on  the  southern  tribes. 
The   text  as   here   given   is   that   contained   in   the   "Western    Sun"   of   September   25,   1830, 
by    which    it    was    reprinted    from    the    "Nashville    Republican." 

2  The  Choctaws  refused  to  attend  the  meeting  because  of  differences  over  the  question 
of  emigrating. 

s  In  addressing  the  white  Congress,  a  few  months  before,  he  had  spoken  of  new 
Indian  states  whose  erection  had  been  attempted  in  Caucasian  commonwealths. 

575 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Your  great  father  has  not  the  power  to  prevent  this  state  of  things,1 
and  he  now  asks  if  you  are  prepared  and  ready  to  submit  yourselves  to 
the  laws  of  Mississippi,  and  make  a  surrender  of  your  ancient  laws  and 
customs,  and  peaceably  and  quietly  live  under  those  of  the  white  man? 

"Brothers,  listen — The  laws  to  which  you  must  be  subjected  are  not 
oppressive,  for  they  are  those  to  which  your  white  brothers  conform  and 
are  happy.  Under  them  you  will  not  be  permitted  to  seek  private  re- 
venge, but  in  all  cases  where  wrong  may  be  done  you  are  through  them 
to  seek  redress.  No  taxes  upon  yourselves,  except  such  as  may  be  im- 
posed upon  a  white  brother,  will  be  assessed  against  you.  The  courts 
will  be  open  for  the  redress  of  wrongs;  and  bad  men  will  be  made  an- 
swerable for  whatever  crimes  or  misdemeanors  may  be  committed  by 
any  of  your  people,  or  our  own. 

"Brothers,  listen — To  these  lawrs,  where  you  are,  you  must  submit — 
there  is  no  preventive — no  other  alternative.  Your  great  father  cannot, 
nor  can  Congress,  prevent  it.  The  states  alone  can.  Do  you  believe 
that  you  can  live  under  those  laws?  That  you  can  surrender  all  your 
ancient  habits,  and  the  forms  by  which  you  have  been  so  long  con- 
trolled ?  If  so,  your  great  father  has  nothing  to  say  or  advise.  He  has 
only  to  express  a  hope  that  you  may  find  happiness  in  the  determination 
you  shall  make,  whatever  it  may  be.  His  earnest  desire  is,  that  you  may 
be  perpetuated  and  preserved  as  a  nation ;  and  this  he  believes  can  only 
be  done  and  secured  by  your  consent  to  remove  to  a  country  beyond  the 
Mississippi,  which  for  the  happiness  of  our  red  friends  was  laid  out  by  the 
government  a  long  time  since,  and  to  which  it  was  expected  ere  this  they 
would  have  gone.  Where  you  are,  it  is  not  possible  you  could  ever  live 
contented  and  happy.  Besides  the  laws  of  Mississippi  which  must  oper- 
ate upon  you,  and  which  your  great  father  cannot  prevent,  white  men 
continually  intruding  are  with  difficulty  kept  off  your  lands,  and  diffi- 
culties continue  to  increase  around  you. 

"Brothers — The  law  of  Congress  usually  called  the  'Intercourse 
Act'  has  been  resorted  to  to  afford  relief,  but  in  many  instances  has 
failed  of  success.  Our  white  population  has  so  extended  around  in 
every  direction  that  difficulties  and  troubles  are  to  be  expected.  Cannot 
this  state  of  things  be  prevented?  Your  firm  determination  can  only 
do  it. 

"Brothers,  listen — There  is  no  unkindness  in  the  offers  made  to  you. 
No  intention  or  wish  is  had  to  force  you  from  your  lands,  but  rather  to 
intimate  to  you  what  is  for  your  own  interest.  The  attachment  you 
feel  for  the  soil  which  covers  the  bones  of  your  ancestors  is  well  known. 
Our  forefathers  had  the  same  feelings  when  a  long  time  ago,  to  obtain 

1  Since  the  previous  May  the  President  and  his  administration  had  been  negotiating 
the  Choctaw  treaty  above  quoted  (and  which  was  signed  thirty-five  days  after  this  speech), 
wherein  the  United  States  guaranteed  to  protect  the  Choctaws  in  future  against  the  state 
of  things  complained  of  by  the  southern  nations  and  here  described  to  the  Chickasaws  as 
being  beyond  the  power  of  government  to  prevent. 

576 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

happiness,  they  left  their  lands  beyond  the  great  waters  and  sought  a 
new  and  quiet  home  in  distant  and  unexplored  regions.  If  they  had  not 
done  so,  where  would  have  been  their  children  and  the  prosperity  they 
enjoy?  The  old  world  would  scarcely  have  afforded  support  for  a  peo- 
ple who,  by  the  change  their  fathers  made,  have  become  prosperous  and 
happy.  In  future  time  so  will  it  be  with  your  children.  Old  men! 
Arouse  to  energy  and  lead  your  children  to  a  land  of  promise  and  of 
peace  before  the  Great  Spirit  shall  call  you  to  die.  Young  chiefs!  For- 
get the  prejudices  you  feel  for  the  soil  of  your  birth,  and  go  to  a  land 
where  you  can  preserve  your  people  and  nation.  Peace  invites  you  there 
— annoyance  will  be  left  behind — within  your  limits  no  state  or  terri- 
torial authority  will  be  permitted.1  Intruders,  traders,  and  above  all, 
ardent  spirits  so  destructive  to  health  and  morals  will  be  kept  from 
among  you,  only  as  the  laws  and  ordinances  of  your  nation2  may  sanc- 
tion their  admission.  And  that  the  weak  may  not  be  assailed  by  their 
stronger  and  more  powerful  neighbors,  care  shall  be  taken  and  stipula- 
tions made  that  the  United  States,  by  arms  if  necessary,  will  preserve 
and  maintain  peace  amongst  the  tribes,  and  guard  them  from  the  as- 
saults of  enemies  of  every  kind,  whether  white  or  red.3 

"Brothers,  listen — These  things  are  for  your  serious  consideration, 
and  it  behooves  you  well  to  think  of  them.  The  present  is  the  time  you 
are  asked  to  do  so.  Reject  the  opportunity  which  is  now  offered  to 
obtain  comfortable  homes,  and  the  time  may  soon  pass  away,  when  such 
advantages  as  are  now  within  your  reach  may  not  again  be  presented. 
If  from  the  course  you  now  pursue  this  shall  be  the  case,  then  call  not 
upon  your  great  father  hereafter  to  relieve  you  of  your  troubles,  but 
make  up  your  minds  conclusively  to  remain  upon  the  lands  you  now 
occupy,  and  be  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  state  where  you  now  reside  to 
the  same  extent  that  her  own  citizens  are.  In  a  few  years  becoming 
amalgamated  with  the  whites,  your  national  character  will  be  lost,  and 
then  like  other  tribes  who  have  gone  before  you,  you  must  disappear 
and  be  forgotten. 

"Brothers- — If  you  are  disposed  to  remove,  say  so,  and  state  the  terms 
you  may  consider  just  and  equitable.  Your  great  father  is  ready  and 
has  instructed  his  commissioners  to  admit  such  as  shall  be  considered 
liberal,  to  the  extent  that  he  can  calculate  the  Senate  of  the  United 

1  Seemingly  a  contraction  of  his  introductory  statement  that  conflict  between  Indian 
independence  and  state   authority  could  not  be  avoided.     If  it  could  not  be  prevented  in 
the  East,  could  it  later  be  escaped  in  the  West,  as  promised,  where  white  settlements  were 
already   appearing  beyond   the   Mississippi?      In   the   East   the   states   of   Alabama   and   Mis- 
sisippi  had  been  erected  to  embrace  part  of  the  pre-existent  Chickasaw  sovereignty,  and  a 
similar   process   might  not  unreasonably   be   expected  to   occur   in   future  beyond   the   great 

2  The  nationality  and  right  of  self-government  of  the  Chickasaws  seems  to  be  taken 
for  granted. 

3  Existing  treaties  and  laws — recently  used  with  success  by  J.   Q.  Adams — already  pro- 
vided  for   the   military  protection   of  the  red   nations   as   here   discussed   by   the    President. 
Jackson    had   withdrawn    Federal    military   protection    from   the    southern    red   nations.      In 
the  case   of  the   Cherokees   this  action   had  been   taken   at  t'-e   request  of  the  Governor  of 
Georgia  after  that  state  had  asserted  jurisdiction  over  the  Cherokee  territories. 

577 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

States  will  sanction.  Terms  of  any  other  character  it  would  be  useless 
for  you  to  insist  upon,  as  without  their  consent  and  approval  no  arrange- 
ment to  be  made  could  prove  effectual.  Should  you  determine  to  re- 
main where  you  are,  candidly  say  so,  and  let  us  be  done  with  the  sub- 
ject, no  more  to  be  talked  of  again.  But  if  disposed  to  consult  your  true 
interests  and  to  remove,  then  present  the  terms  on  which  you  are  will- 
ing to  do  so  to  my  friends,  the  Secretary  of  War  and  General  John 
Coffee,  who  are  authorized  to  confer  with  you,  and  who  in  the  arrange- 
ments to  be  made  will  act  candidly,  fairly  and  liberally  toward  you." 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THE  CHICKASAWS  YIELD  —  JACKSON'S  GRATIFICATION  AND 
THE  METHOD  OF  ITS  EXPRESSION  —  NEW  DANGERS 
ARISE  TO  THREATEN  THE  PRESIDENT'S  INDIAN  POL- 
ICY—GEORGIA DEFIES  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 
AND  JACKSON  PERMITS  THE  NULLIFICATION — THE 
CHEROKEES  ATTEMPT  TO  CARRY  THEIR  CASE  TO 
THE  SUPREME  COURT  AS  A  FOREIGN  NATION — THE 
COURT  DECLARES  IT  HAS  NO  JURISDICTION — ITS  REA- 
SON FOR  THE  DECISION — UNEXPECTED  EVENTS  RESULT 
IN  A  SECOND  JUDGMENT  WHICH  GIVES  THE  CHEROKEE 
REPUBLIC  EQUAL  RANK  WITH  OTHER  NATIONS,  PRO- 
NOUNCES IT  INDEPENDENT  OF  UNITED  STATES  LAW 
AND  CONDEMNS  GEORGIA  —  JACKSON'S  CONTRADIC- 
TORY ATTITUDES  AND  THEIR  SIGNIFICANCE 

GENERAL  JACKSON'S  picture  of  future  freedom 
wrought  its  effect,  and  four  days  later  the  Chickasaw 
nation  decided  to  give  up  its  country  in  exchange  for  ths 
promised  liberty.  Fear  of  civil  war  was  considerably 
reduced,  and  the  unification  of  white  territory  east  of  the 
Mississippi  was  apparently  in  sight.  Jackson's  relief  at 
the  success  of  his  plans  was  shown  in  his  annual  message 
at  the  close  of  the  year.1  In  that  utterance  he  returned  to 
the  former  Caucasian  attitude  of  self-laudation,  and  again 
affirmed  the  philanthropy,  benevolence  and  generosity  of 

1  December  6,  1830. 

579 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

the  government.  He  also  said  that  peril  of  civil  conflict 
had  existed  as  a  consequence  of  conditions  in  the  South, 
and  drew  attention  to  the  consolidation  of  the  national 
domain  resulting  from  the  success  of  the  government's 
bloodless  conquest.  His  argument  in  behalf  of  the  Ad- 
ministration's action  was  put  in  the  following  terms: 

"It  gives  me  pleasure  to  announce  to  Congress  that  the  benevolent 
policy  of  the  Government,  steadily  pursued  for  nearly  thirty  years,  in 
relation  to  the  removal  of  the  Indians  beyond  the  white  settlements  is 
approaching  to  a  happy  consummation.  Two  important  tribes  have  ac- 
cepted the  provision  made  for  their  removal  at  the  last  session  of  Con- 
gress, and  it  is  believed  that  their  example  will  induce  the  remaining 
tribes  also  to  seek  the  same  obvious  advantages. 

"The  consequences  of  a  speedy  removal  will  be  important  to  the 
United  States,  to  individual  States,  and  to  the  Indians  themselves.  The 
pecuniary  advantages  which  it  promises  to  the  Government  are  the  least 
of  its  recommendations.  It  puts  an  end  to  all  possible  danger  of  collision 
between  the  authorities  of  the  General  and  State  Governments  on  account 
of  the  Indians.  It  will  place  a  dense  and  civilized  population  in  large 
tracts  of  country  now  occupied  by  a  few  savage  hunters.  By  opening  the 
whole  territory  between  Tennessee  on  the  north  and  Louisiana  on  the 
south  to  the  settlement  of  the  whites  it  will  incalculably  strengthen  the 
southwestern  frontier.  .  .  It  will  relieve  the  whole  State  of  Mississippi 
and  the  western  part  of  Alabama  of  Indian  occupancy,  and  enable  those 
States  to  advance  rapidly  in  population,  wealth  and  power.  It  will 
separate  the  Indians  from  immediate  contact  with  settlements  of  whites; 
free  them  from  the  power  of  the  States;  enable  them  to  pursue  happiness 
in  their  own  way  and  under  their  own  rude  institutions ;  will  retard  the 
progress  of  decay,  which  is  lessening  their  numbers,  and  perhaps  cause 
them  gradually,  under  the  protection  of  the  Government  and  through 
the  influence  of  good  counsels,  to  cast  off  their  savage  habits  and  become 
an  interesting,  civilized  and  Christian  community.  .  . 

"Toward  the  aborigines  of  the  country  none  can  indulge  a  more 
friendly  feeling  than  myself,  or  would  go  further  in  attempting  to  reclaim 
them  from  their  wandering  habits.  .  .  .  * 

"With  a  full  understanding  of  the  subject,  the  Choctaw  and  Chicka- 
saw  tribes  have  with  great  unanimity  determined  to  avail  themselves  of 
the  liberal  offers  presented  by  the  act  of  Congress,  and  have  agreed  to 
remove  beyond  the  Mississippi  river.  .  .  In  negotiating  these  treaties 
they  were  made  to  understand  their  true  condition,  and  they  have  pre- 
ferred maintaining  their  independence  in  the  western  forests  to  sub- 

1  In  view  of  his  recent  effort  to  uproot  the  settled  and  prosperous  Chickasaws,  the 
declaration  is  little  less  than  extraordinary. 

580 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


The  subscriber  lias  prepared  himself  with  a  first  rate 

FERRYBOAT, 

WITH  APRONS  AND. BANNISTERS. 

At  his  Ferrj  opposite  Market  street,  Vincennes,  im- 
mediately on  the  road  to  St.  Louis,  where,  bj  his 
strict  attention  and  care,  he  flatters  hiilself  all  who 
maj  wish  to  cross  the  Wabash  will  be  accommodat- 
ed to  their  satisfaction. 

JAMES  XABB. 
October  lith*  1838. 


172. — Broadside  issued  by  a  ferry-boat  owner  on  the  mail  stage  road  from 
Louisville  to  St.  Louis,  during  the  early  years  of  periodic  overland  travel  in 
the  Mississippi  valley.  A  line  of  stage  wagons  between  the  two  cities 
named,  and  running  through  Vincenne«,  had  been  established  in  1821.  The 
stage-coach  trip  on  this  first  periodic  line  of  the  interior  required  five  days. 

mitting  to  the  laws  of  the  States  in  which  they  now  reside.1  These 
treaties,  being  probably  the  last  which  will  ever  be  made  with  them,  are 
characterized  by  a  great  liberality  on  the  part  of  the  Government.  If  it  be 
their  real  interest  to  maintain  a  separate  existence,  they  will  there  be  at 
liberty  to  do  so  without  the  inconvenience  and  vexations  to  which  they 
would  unavoidably  have  been  subject  in  Alabama  and  Mississippi. 

"Humanity  has  often  wept  over  the  fate  of  the  aborigines  of  this 
country,  and  Philanthropy  has  been  long  busily  employed  in  devising 
means  to  avert  it,  but  its  progress  has  never  for  a  moment  been 
arrested.  .  .  But  true  philanthropy  reconciles  the  mind  to  these  vicis- 

1  The  embarrassment  of  the  government  was  such  that  a  consistent  statement  was 
seemingly  impossible. 

581 


situdes  as  it  does  to  the  extinction  of  one  generation  to  make  room  for 
another.  .  .  Nor  is  there  anything  in  this  which,  upon  a  comprehensive 
view  of  the  general  interests  of  the  human  race,  is  to  be  regretted. 
Philanthropy  could  not  wish  to  see  this  continent  restored  to  the  condi- 
tion in  which  it  was  found  by  our  forefathers.  What  good  man  would 
prefer  a  country  covered  with  forests  and  ranged  by  a  few  thousand 
savages  to  our  extensive  Republic,  studded  with  cities,  towns  and  pros- 
perous farms,  embellished  with  all  the  improvements  which  art  can 
devise  or  industry  execute,  occupied  by  more  than  12,000,000  happy 
people,  and  filled  with  all  the  blessings  of  liberty,  civilization  and  re- 
ligion? 

"The  present  policy  of  the  Government  is  but  a  continuation  of  the 
same  progressive  change  by  a  milder  process.  .  .  The  waves  of  popu- 
lation and  civilization  are  rolling  to  the  westward,  and  we  now  pro- 
pose to  acquire  the  countries  occupied  by  the  red  men  of  the  South  and 
West  by  a  fair  exchange.  .  .  Doubtless  it  will  be  painful  to  leave  the 
graves  of  their  fathers;  but  what  do  they  more  than  our  ancestors  did 
or  than  our  children  are  now  doing?1  To  better  their  condition  in  an 
unknown  land  our  forefathers  left  all  that  was  dear  in  earthly  ob- 
jects. .  .  Does  Humanity  weep  at  these  painful  separations  from 
everything,  animate  and  inanimate,  with  which  the  young  heart  has  be- 
come entwined  ?  Far  from  it.  .  .  Can  it  be  cruel  in  this  Government 
when,  by  events  which  it  cannot  control,  the  Indian  is  made  discontented 
in  his  ancient  home?  . 

"And  is  it  supposed  that  the  wandering  savage  has  a  stronger  attach- 
ment to  his  home  than  the  settled,  civilized  Christian?  Is  it  more 
afflicting  to  him  to  leave  the  graves  of  his  fathers  than  it  is  to  our  brothers 
and  children.  Rightly  considered,  the  policy  of  the  General  Government 
toward  the  red  man  is  not  only  liberal,  but  generous.  He  is  unwilling  to 
submit  to  the  laws  of  the  States  and  mingle  with  their  population.  To 
save  him  from  this  alternative,  or  perhaps  utter  annihilation,  the  General 
Government  kindly  offers  him  a  new  home,  and  proposes  to  pay  the 
whole  expense  of  his  removal  and  settlement.  . 

"No  act  of  the  General  Government  has  ever  been  deemed  necessary 
to  give  the  State  jurisdiction  over  the  person  of  the  Indians.  That  they 
possess  by  virtue  of  their  sovereign  power  within  their  own  limits  in  as 
full  a  manner  before  as  after  the  purchase  of  the  Indians  lands;  nor  can 
this  Government  add  to  or  diminish  it. 

"May  we  not  hope,  therefore,  that  all  good  citizens,  and  none  more 
jealously  than  those  who  think  the  Indians  oppressed  by  subjection  to  the 
laws  of  the  States,  will  unite  in  attempting  to  open  the  eyes  of  those 
children  of  the  forest  to  their  true  condition,  and  by  a  speedy  removal  to 
relieve  them  from  all  the  evils,  real  or  imaginary,  present  or  prospective, 
with  which  they  may  be  supposed  to  be  threatened." 

1  One  group  of  humanity  mentioned  was  willingly  moving  toward  a  wider  dominion; 
the  other  unwillingly  moving  toward  a  lesser. 

582 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL   IN   AMERICA 

The  use  of  such  expressions  as  "wandering  savages," 
"children  of  the  forest"  and  "savage  hunters,"  in  describ- 
ing the  Indians  east  of  the  Mississippi — and  especially 
the  southern  nations  —  during  the  period  just  discussed, 
wa-s  a  habit  of  many  whites  in  official  position.  Judg- 
ing from  an  examination  of  governmental  contemporary 
evidence  set  down  by  those  who  had  knowledge  derived 
from  personal  observation,  examples  of  which  have  been 
presented,  those  terms  did  not  fit  the  peoples  to  whom 
they  wrere  applied.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  believe  that  Presi- 
dents, Cabinet  Ministers  and  other  men  in  high  place, 
with  such  evidence  at  their  command,  could  have  re- 
mained so  uninformed  of  the  condition  and  aspirations 
of  the  southern  red  nations  as  thus  to  characterize  them 
with  honest  error.  It  seems  more  probable,  in  view  of 
what  was  taking  place,  that  the  systematic  use  of  such 
expressions  was  part  of  a  method  used  to  spread  abroad 
a  general  misapprehension  of  the  Indians  in  the  minds 
of  those  who  did  not  have  personal  knowledge  of  the 
facts,  and  so  make  it  easier  to  overcome  the  natives  by 
diplomacy  without  the  necessity  of  combating  any  serious 
public  sentiment  opposed  to  the  process  in  hand.  The 
overwhelming  preponderance  of  public  opinion  was  then, 
as  always  before,  against  the  natives,  and  it  was  obviously 
to  the  advantage  of  the  administration  that  it  should  so 
continue.  In  his  annual  message  just  quoted,  Jackson  dis- 
cussed the  relationship  of  popular  opinion  to  his  actions 
in  these  words: 

"I  know  of  no  tribunal  to  which  a  public  man  in  this  country,  in  a 
case  of  doubt  or  difficulty,  can  appeal  with  greater  advantage  or  more 
propriety  than  the  judgment  of  the  people;  and  although  I  must  neces- 
sarily in  the  discharge  of  my  official  duties  be  governed  by  the  dictates 
of  my  own  judgment,  I  have  no  desire  to  conceal  my  anxious  wish  to 
conform  as  far  as  I  can  to  the  views  of  those  for  whom  I  act." 

583 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


••«i 


^ 


'^: 

-•#• 


• 


~ff~T"         •  YIT        1  • 

Union  Hall 


, 

VIJVCEWES,  LL 


TEE  subscriber  respectfully  in-  || 
forms  the  travelling  public,  and  the  b- 
.,;    citizens  generally,  that  he  has  purcha-  J 
sed,  and  now  occupies,  that  eligible  $  •* 
long  established  tavern  stand,  on  Main  jj| 
street,  where  ladies  ^r  gentlemen  who  jj* 
favor  him  with  a  call,  shall  be  accom-  i> 
modated  in  comfortable  village  stjle.     !j 

There  is  a  FERRY  attached  | 
to  the  premises,  which  shall  :"J 

be  attended  to  in  such  a  manner  as  to  J: 

deserve  public  patronage. 

WM.  PRICE. 

>*  1'iti  <*  111  IIP i*      \  S**)  %  !- 

Ol    81 1C  111  UL  I  ,       IO.-i«/. 


173. — A   broadside   address   to   travellers  circulated  by  a  tavern  keeper  on   the 
Louisville-St.  Louis  stage   road  in   1825. 

These  are  laudable  sentiments  for  an  Executive  pro- 
vided he  does  not  mislead  the  people  by  distorting  cir- 
cumstances at  issue  in  accordance  with  his  own  desire 
and  thus  foster  an  erroneous  popular  judgment  which  will 
uphold  him  in  his  chosen  course,  and  to  which  he  can 

584 


*, 


Travellers  &  Movers.  f . 

The  subscriber  having  purchased  the 

FERRY,     .         I 

crossing  the  Wabash  from  Market  street,  Vincennes,  and  ]| 
the  farm  opposite,  on  the  state  road  leading  to  St.  Louis,  f| 
formerly  owned  by  Mr.  Oibson — where 

Corn,  Ilmi  &  Oats     I 

*/       og7»  [J. 

will  be  kept,  and  sold  low  for  cash  ?  a  lot  will  be  prepar-  f| 
ed  for  the  accommodation  of  Drovers,  Movers,  tyc. — new  & 
and  substantial  BOJLTti  will  he  soon  completed,  one  for  § 
the  conveyance  of  heavy  teams,  one  for  carriages  «y  light  f| 
waggons,  and  the  best  skill's.  The  ferry  will  be  attend-  P 
\  ed  by  experienced  and  trusty  hands,  and  all  damages  that  f> 
""  may  result  from  the  neglect  or  bad  management  of  the  |£ 
hands  will  be  paid  for  upon  demand,  by  the  proprietor,  p 
living  at  the  Ferry  landing,  corner  of  Market  <$*  Water  ^ 
streets,  Vincennes,  where  he  has,  connected  with  Mr.  B.  " 
Olney,a  general  assortment  of  Groceries,  Liquors,  Oruggs, 
Patent  Medicines,  Salt,  Tar,  <|*c. 

WILLIAM  MIEURE. 
Vincennes,  August  13,  1835. 


L 

174. — Another  broadside  circulated  by  a.  ferry  owner  on  the  same  road,  appeal- 
ing for  the  patronage  of  the  travelling  public.  From  the  information  (on- 
tained  in  the  hand-bill  it  is  apparent  that  a  considerable  traffic,  of  diversified 
character,  was  moving  over  the  highway. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

then  point  as  the  mandate  of  those  for  whom  he  acts.  Such 
a  procedure  was  easier  in  those  days  than  it  now  is,  and 
was  sometimes  resorted  to.  Whether  or  not  it  was  under- 
taken during  the  years  under  review,  in  connection  with 
the  grave  crisis  then  attending  the  Indian  question,  is  a 
matter  of  opinion  and  a  debatable  question.  Certain  it 
is,  however,  that  Jackson's  message  of  1830  —  in  so  far 
as  it  dealt  with  native  character,  conditions  and  progress 
-  was  a  collection  of  sophistries,  misleading  suggestions 
and  erroneous  declarations  in  contradiction  of  official  in- 
formation gathered  by  the  government  during  the  period 
of  ten  years  just  preceding. 

The  foundation  of  Jackson's  attitude  toward  the 
Indian  question  lay  in  the  assumption  —  as  voiced  by 
him  in  the  message  of  1830  --  that  no  act  of  the  general 
government  was  necessary  to  give  a  state  jurisdiction  over 
the  persons  and  territories  of  the  Indians;  that  individual 
states  possessed  such  power  even  before  the  acquisition  of 
native  lands;  and  that  the  general  government  could 
neither  add  to  nor  increase  such  power.  He  had  made 
public  utterance  of  his  opinion  in  that  respect  before  his 
election  to  the  Presidency,  and  when  vested  with  Execu- 
tive duty  he  proceeded  to  act  in  accordance  therewith, 
although  he  could  scarcely  have  been  unaware  that  his 
attitude  was  in  conflict  with  both  principle  and  practise 
as  laid  down  and  adopted  by  the  executive,  legislative  and 
judicial  departments  of  the  government  from  its  or- 
ganization. 

From  two  of  those  departments  he  had  nothing  to  fear 
in  carrying  out  his  program.  He  himself  was  Chief 
Executive,  and  the  Congress  displayed  general  com- 
plaisance with  the  essential  feature  of  his  policy,  which 
was  to  force  Indian  evacuation  of  the  East  through  a 

586 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

denial  of  native  independence.1  The  only  visible  snag 
on  which  his  plan  might  founder  was  a  possible  attitude 
by  the  judiciary  which  would  emphasize  his  con- 
stitutional duty  to  uphold  native  rights,  in  some  specific 
case,  against  the  newly  advanced  contention  of  the 
southern  states  and  himself.  Such  a  possibility  had  indeed 
been  in  sight  for  nearly  a  year,  .for  the  Cherokees  had 
entered  on  a  course  of  action  having  for  its  ultimate  pur- 
pose a  test  of  their  position  before  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court.  And  unequivocal  as  were  Jackson's 
declarations  regarding  state  jurisdiction  over  the  Indians, 
his  personal  journey  to  Tennessee  in  company  with  the 
Minister  of  War,  in  an  effort  to  persuade  the  Chickasaws 
and  Choctaws  to  a  policy  of  emigration  in  advance  of 
any  legal  pronouncement  on  native  sovereignty  lends 
some  weight  to  an  inference  that  he  was  not  altogether 
easy  in  mind  concerning  the  outcome  of  the  impending 
judgment,  and  wished  to  commit  as  many  red  nations 
as  possible  to  his  policy  before  an  unappealable  verdict 
was  handed  down. 

But  an  unexpected  event  forced  the  President  to  re- 
veal his  ultimate  attitude  even  before  the  case  of  the 
Cherokees  was  decided.  In  June  of  1830  Georgia  had 
asserted  that  she  possessed  title  to  all  Indian  lands 
within  her  newly  claimed  jurisdiction,  and  soon  after- 
ward she  forbid  the  natives  to  mine  the  gold  lately  dis- 
covered in  their  territories.  These  acts  were  followed 
by  another  order  to  survey  certain  Indian  lands.  Some 
of  the  Indian  improvements  were  seized,  and  arrange- 
ments were  made  to  distribute  Cherokee  lands  among 

1  This  definition,  however,  does  not  precisely  fit  Jackson's  attitude,  which,  in  fact, 
is  apparently  impossible  of  exact  definition.  It  has  been  seen  that  he  refused  to  acknowl- 
edge native  independence  if  the  Indians  remained  in  the  East,  while  at  the  same  time  he 
acknowledged  it  and  pledged  its  continuance  in  perpetuity  if  they  removed  to  the  West. 

587 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


IN  THHT  CONGRESS  OF  T1IF.  IMTEU  t  J^_ 

ON  THE   SUADAY  MAIL   QUZJBT 
V 


"It  sh'tuM  b«  kept  in  mind, 
that  the  proper  ohject  of  covtrn- 
mrnt  n,  to  protect  all  person* 
ID  their  rehg>ou»  M  well  «  c.vil 


175. — Many  of  the  stages  or  stage  wagons  first  operated  in  the  interior  bore 
resemblance  to  the  vehicle  here  depicted.  They  constituted  an  inter- 
mediate form  between  the  earlier  stage  wagon  of  the  East  and  the  Concord 
type  that  afterward  replaced  them.  Title  of  the  large  broadside  con- 
taining the  Congressional  committee  reports  which  determined  the  Federal 
government's  attitude  toward  Sunday  travel.  Issued  in  1829. 

the  whites  by  lottery.  In  the  midst  of  the  disorders 
brought  about  by  these  procedures  a  Cherokee  named 
Tassel,  while  resisting  the  execution  of  Georgia  law  in 
Cherokee  territory,  killed  a  man.  Tassel  was  taken  into 
custody  by  Georgia,  convicted  of  murder  by  a  state  court1 
and  sentenced  to  death.  The  Cherokee  nation  appeared 
before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  pro- 
test against  these  proceedings,  and  a  writ  of  error  issued 
from  that  tribunal  commanding  Georgia,  in  the  person 
of  its  Governor,  to  appear  and  answer  for  having  unlaw- 
fully arrested  and  condemned  a  Cherokee  citizen. 

On  receipt  of  this  mandate  Governor  Gilmer  of 
Georgia  sent  a  message2  to  the  legislature  saying  he  had 
received  a  document  "purporting  to  be  signed  by  the 
Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States,"  and  declaring  that 
"orders  received  from  the  Supreme  Court  for  the  purpose 
of  staying,  or  in  any  manner  interfering  with  the  decisions 


1  The  Superior  Court  of  Hall  county. 

2  December  22,  1830. 


588 


ft   zr        .-.^O'-(---'-ii~ 

?  c  "  Q  ^  «^  cr^-g^ 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

of  the  courts  of  the  state,  in  the  exercise  of  their  con- 
stitutional jurisdiction,  will  be  disregarded  and  any  at- 
tempt to  enforce  such  orders  will  be  resisted  with  what- 
ever force  the  laws  have  placed  at  my  command." 

The  state  legislature  passed  a  resolution  in  which 
the  Governor  and  all  other  officers  of  the  state  were  en- 
joined "to  disregard  any  and  every  mandate  and  process 
that  has  been  or  shall  be  served  upon  him  or  them,  pur- 
porting to  proceed  from  the  Chief  Justice  or  any  Asso- 
ciate Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States," 
and  the  Governor  was  "authorized  and  required,  with  all 
the  force  and  means  placed  at  his  command  by  the  Con- 
stitution and  laws  of  this  state,  to  resist  and  repel  any  and 
every  invasion  from  whatever  quarter  upon  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  criminal  laws  of  this  State." 

Tassel  was  hanged,  and  the  issue  of  nullification  of 
supreme  Federal  authority  by  an  individual  state  was 
thus  unexpectedly  confronted  by  Jackson.  The  President 
did  nothing.1 

Georgia  was  served  by  the  Cherokee  nation  in  De- 
cember of  1830  with  notice  of  a  motion  for  an  injunction 
restraining  the  state  from  enforcing  its  recent  laws  within 
the  native  possessions.  The  motion  came  before  the  Su- 
preme Court  on  March  5,  1831,  the  plaintiff  appearing 
under  that  section  of  the  Constitution  giving  foreign  and 
sovereign  nations  the  right  to  make  such  an  appeal.  Chief 
Justice  Marshall  handed  down  the  decision  of  the  Court, 
and  the  essential  substance  of  its  majority  finding  is  em- 
braced in  the  following  extracts  from  his  opinion:2 

"  .  .  So  much  of  the  argument  as  was  intended  to  prove  the  charac- 
ter of  the  Cherokees  as  a  State,  as  a  distinct  political  society,  separated 

1  It  is  not  unlikely  that  Georgia's  successful   nullification   of  1830  was  to   some  extend 
responsible  for  South  Carolina's  attempted  nullification  of  national  law  in  the  more  trivial 
matter  of  customs  duties  a  short  time  afterward. 

2  Texts  of  all  the  opinions,  assenting  and   dissenting,   in   5    Peters,   1. 

590 


FROM  VINCBNNES  TO  ST.  LOUIS. 

r 

i^ 

8  Miles 

*   - 

To  Taylor's        - 
Lawranceville, 

-             2 

Clubb's 
Delotig's            - 

.«'     ..     '• 
11 

&• 

Morehouse's         -  • 

Dummetts',  Fox  R. 

«•  •           *             At 

%r 

McCalley's,  L.  W. 

12 

;." 

May's 

.'•       2 

•'•-. 

Elliott's 

12 

Fitch's            - 
Joshoa  Piles' 

7 
12 

.V* 

Dumm's 

8 

- 

- 
fe 

Hicks' 

-                     8 

" 

1 

Houston's* 

12 

- 

|L 

Carlisle 

10 

• 

P 
t 

Shoal  Creek 

8 

ft 

Webster's            • 

• 

9 

P7 
| 

Medley's 

. 

3 

• 

* 
fc 

Lebanon 

10( 

1 

Hathaway's 

-.         10 

Town 

.        10                                    j|t 

St.  Louis 

.  -      2            j} 

E.  STOXJT  PR.  Vincennes. 

177. — A  stage-coach  way-bill,  or  manifest,  used  by  another  line  running  coaches 

between  Vincennes  and  St.  Louis  at  the  same  period.     Distances  were  still 

commonly  reckoned  in  miles  intervening  between  taverns. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

from  others,  capable  of  managing  its  own  affairs  and  governing  itself  has, 
in  the  opinion  of  a  majority  of  the  judges  been  completely  successful. 
They  have  been  uniformly  treated  as  a  State,  from  the  settlement  of 
the  country.  .  .  .  The  acts  of  our  Government  plainly  recognize 
the  Cherokee  nation  as  a  State,  and  the  courts  are  bound  by  those  acts." 

Having  established  in  law  the  contention  of  the 
Cherokees  respecting  their  separate  and  self-governing 
character  as  a  state,  the  opinion  went  on  to  say: 

".  .  .  It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  those  tribes  which  reside 
within  the  acknowledged  boundaries  of  the  United  States  can,  with 
strict  accuracy,  be  denominated  foreign  nations.  They  may,  more  cor- 
rectly, perhaps,  be  denominated  domestic  dependent  nations." 

Thus  the  motion  for  an  injunction  and  the  merits  of 
the  case  were  not  reached,  on  the  declared  grounds 
that  the  Cherokees  were  not  a  foreign  nation ;  that  the 
Court  had  no  jurisdiction;  and  that  the  plaintiff  could 
not  apply  to  it  for  relief.  One  state  is  foreign  to  another 
if  it  is  wholly  under  a  different  governmental  jurisdiction, 
without  regard  to  the  relative  geographical  positions  of 
the  two  sovereignties  concerned.  The  political  distinc- 
tion embodied  in  the  term  "foreign"  is  in  no  sense  related 
to  or  dependent  upon  geographical  or  territorial  con- 
siderations. The  decision  was  substantially  equivalent  to 
a  pronouncement  that  an  old,  established  and  independent 
political  state,  if  gradually  surrounded  by  the  territory  of 
a  newly  created  government,  automatically  loses  its  sover- 
eignty and  foreign  quality  to  the  younger  nation  by  virtue 
of  that  process. 

Justice  Johnson,  in  assenting  to  the  majority  opinion1 
that  the  Court  had  no  jurisdiction  to  give  the  Cherokees 
relief,  stated  that  existing  conditions  in  the  South 
amounted  to  war  and  that  the  native  nation's  only  appeal 
was  to  the  sword.  He  said : 

".  .  .  Their  present  form  of  government  .  .  .  certainly  must 
be  classed  among  the  most  approved  forms  of  civil  government. 

1  Justices  Thompson  and  Story  dissented. 

592 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

"What  does  this  series  of  allegations  exhibit  but  a  state  of  war,  and 
the  fact  of  invasion  ?  They  allege  themselves  to  be  a  sovereign  independ- 
ent state,  and  set  out  that  another  sovereign  state  has,  by  its  laws,  its 
functionaries,  and  its  armed  force,  invaded  their  State  and  put  down 
their  authority.  This  is  war,  in  fact;  though  not  being  declared  with  the 
usual  solemnities  it  may  perhaps  be  called  war  in  disguise.  And  the 
contest  is  distinctly  a  contest  for  empire  .  .  .  not  an  appeal  to  laws,  but 
to  force.  A  case  in  which  a  sovereign  undertakes  to  assert  his  right  upon 
his  sovereign  responsibility;  to  right  himself,  and  not  appeal  to  any  arbiter 
but  the  sword  for  the  justice  of  his  cause.  .  .  In  the  exercise  of  sovereign 
right  the  sovereign  is  sole  arbiter  of  his  own  justice.  The  penalty  of 
wrong  is  war  and  subjugation." 

Thus  the  Cherokees,  having  abandoned  fighting  for 
industry,  appealed  to  the  highest  tribunal  of  their  adver- 
saries and  were  met  with  the  information  that  the  whites 
were  making  warfare  on  them  in  a  contest  for  empire, 
and  that  their  remedy  was  to  seek  their  rights  in  battle 
and  subjugate  Georgia  by  the  sword. 

Neither  of  the  two  cases  hitherto  cited  involved  the 
lives,  liberties  or  other  rights  of  United  States  citizens 
in  the  dispute  concerning  the  political  status  of  the  red 
nations.  But  an  event  soon  occurred  which  did  introduce 
those  new  elements  into  the  controversy,  with  attendant 
results  of  importance.  Georgia  had  passed  an  act1  pro- 
hibiting white  men  from  living  among  the  Cherokees 
without  permission  from  herself,  and  after  the  Supreme 
Court  had  denied  its  jurisdiction  over  the  race  quarrel,  the 
commonwealth  felt  emboldened  to  adopt  measures  more 
extreme  than  those  previously  taken.  Under  the  law  men- 
tioned she  arrested  a  number  of  white  men  residing  in 
the  Cherokee  nation  with  its  permission,  but  without  li- 
censes from  Georgia,  and  who  had  not  taken  oath  to  obey 
the  laws  of  Georgia  while  they  remained  in  native  juris- 
diction. One  of  these  men  was  Samuel  Worcester,  a 

1  December  22,  1830,  during  the  nullification  of  Federal  authority  in  the  Tassel  case. 

593 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

missionary  and  citizen  of  the  state  of  Vermont.1 
Worcester  was  tried  under  the  law  in  question,  found 
guilty,  sentenced  to  the  penitentiary  for  a  term  of  four 
years  at  hard  labor  and  there  imprisoned.  The  Vermont 
man  took  his  case  to  the  Supreme  Court,  which  cited 
Georgia  to  appear  before  it  as  in  the  Tassel  matter,  and 
Georgia  again  ignored  the  summons.  Argument  was 
heard  in  January  of  1832,  and  the  opinion  of  the  Court, 
as  handed  down  by  Chief  Justice  Marshall  reviewed  the 
whole  range  of  international  relationship  existing  between 
the  white  and  red  nations.2  The  Treaty  of  Holstein  in 
1791,  said  the  Court,  was  one 

"Explicitly  recognizing  the  national  character  of  the  Cherokees,  and 
their  right  of  self-government.  .  .  All  these  acts  [those  of  the  United 
States  from  the  commencement  of  constitutional  government]  manifestly 
consider  the  several  Indian  nations  as  distinct  political  communities,  hav- 
ing territorial  boundaries  within  which  their  authority  is  exclusive.  .  . 

"The  Indian  nations  had  always  been  considered  as  distinct,  independ- 
ent, political  communities,  retaining  their  original  natural  rights.  .  . 
The  very  term,  'nation,'  so  generally  applied  to  them,  means  'a  people  dis- 
tinct from  others'.  .  .  The  constitution  .  .  admits  their  rank  among 
those  powers  who  are  capable  of  making  treaties.  .  .  The  words  'treaty' 
and  'nation'  are  words  of  our  own  language,  selected  in  our  diplomatic 
and  legislative  proceedings  by  ourselves,  having  each  a  definite  and  well- 
understood  me'aning.  We  have  applied  them  to  Indians,  as  we  have 
applied  them  to  the  other  nations  of  the  earth;  they  are  applied  to  all 
in  the  same  sense. 

".  .  .  Georgia,  herself,  has  furnished  conclusive  evidence  that  her 
former  opinion  on  this  subject  concurred  with  those  entertained  by  her 
sister  states,  and  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States."  The 
acts  of  her  legislature,  the  opinion  continued,  "proved  her  acquiescence  in 
the  universal  conviction  that  the  Indian  nations  .  .  possessed  rights 
with  which  no  state  could  interfere,"  and  "that  their  territory  was  sepa- 
rated from  that  of  any  state."  .  .  Her  new  series  of  laws,  manifesting 
her  abandonment  of  these  opinions,  appears  to  have  commenced  in  De- 
cember, 1828.  .  . 

"The  Cherokee  nation,  then,  is  a  distinct  community,  occupying  its 
own  territory,  with  boundaries  accurately  described,  in  which  the  laws  of 

1  Others  were  Elizur  Butler,  James  Trott,  Samuel  Mays,   Surry  Eaton,   Austin  Cope- 
land  and   Edward  Losure. 

2  Judgment  contained  in  6  Peters,  515. 

594 


140 


The  following  specification  of  the  fare  of  the  principal  Stage 
Routes,  by  which  the  traveller  may  reckon  the  cost  of  his 
tour,  will  not  be  superfluous. 

Miles. 

From  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburgh,  300  $15  00 

Philadelphia      Baltimore, 

Baltimore          Wheeling, 

Pittsburgh          Wheeling 

Wheeling          Columbus, 

Columbus          Cleaveland, 

Columbus          Chillicothe, 

Chillicothe         Cincinnati, 

Columbus          Cincinnati,  direct, 

Indianapolis       Madison, 

Cincinnati         Lexington, 

Lexington          Louisville, 

Louisville          St.  Louis,  via  Vincennes, 

Louisville          Nashville,  180     12  00 

Richmond  Cincinnati,  via  Staunton, 
Lewisburg,  Charleston  on  the  Kanha- 
way  and  Guyandot,  thence  155  miles 
by  steamboat,  51$  28  00 

Richmond  to  Knoxville,  via  Lynchburgh, 

Abington,  Kings  port,  &c.,  444  28  50 

Baltimore  to  Richmond,  via  Norfolk,  by 
steamboat, 

Knoxville  to  Nashville,  via  McMinville, 

Nashville      Memphis, 

Nashville      Florence, 

Huntsville    Tus^aloosa, 

Florence       Tuscaloosa, 

Tuscaloosa  Montgomery, 

Tuscaloosa    Mobile,  by  steamboat, 

Augusta       Montgomery, 

Montgomery  Mobile 

Mobile          New  Orleans, 

St.  Augustine  to  New  Orleans, 

Boston  and  New  York  to  New  Orleans, 
by  packet,  cabin  passage,  fare  inclusive, 
from  $40  to  50  00 

178. — List  showing  the  cost  of  various  stage-coach  trips  in  the  East,  South  and 
Mississippi  valley  in  1848.  From  Warner's  "Immigrant's  Guide,"  pub- 
lished in  the  year  named.  The  ticket  for  a  journey  from  Louisville  to  St. 
Louis  then  cost  $15.50. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Georgia  can  have  no  force,  and  which  the  citizens  of  Georgia  have  no 
right  to  enter  but  with  the  assent  of  the  Cherokees  themselves.     . 

"The  act  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  under  which  the  plaintiff  in  error 
was  prosecuted  is  consequently  void,  and  the  judgment  a  nullity.  .  . 
The  acts  of  Georgia  are  repugnant  to  the  constitution,  laws  and  treaties 
of  the  United  States.  .  .  ." 

This  judgment  constituted  a  reversal  of  the  Court's 
opinion  in  the  case  brought  directly  by  the  Chero- 
kees themselves  and  placed  them  in  the  rank  of  foreign  as 
well  as  independent  nations.  It  stated  that  they  had 
retained  those  original  natural  rights  possessed  by  them 
before  the  United  States  territory  had  reached  and  encom- 
passed them,  and  that,  instead  of  being  so-called  "domestic 
dependent  nations,"  the  term  "nation"  as  given  by  the 
United  States  to  an  Indian  state  was  applied  to  it  as  to  the 
other  nations  of  the  earth,  and  in  the  same  sense.  The 
violated  rights  of  a  white  man  had  brought  forth  that 
unequivocal  assertion  of  native  sovereignty  without  which 
the  United  States  citizen  could  not  have  been  restored  to 
freedom. 

Worcester  was  not  set  free.  A  mandate  issued 
from  the  Supreme  Court  ordering  Georgia  to  liberate  the 
prisoner,  but  it  was  not  obeyed.  Georgia  maintained  her 
attitude  of  nullification,  the  missionary  was  held  in  prison, 
and  later  released  through  the  process  of  a  state  pardon. 

Jackson  again  did  nothing.  Various  efforts  were  made 
to  procure  Worcester's  release  not  only  before,  but  during 
and  after  the  Supreme  Court's  consideration  of  the  case, 
and  among  these  endeavors  was  that  of  the  American 
Board  of  Missions.  That  body  laid  a  statement  of  the 
matter  before  Jackson  and  asked  his  aid.  In  reply  the 
President  addressed  the  following  letter  to  the  Board:1 

"Gentlemen: — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your 

1  Apparently  not  included  in  biographies  of  Jackson  or  other  historical  reviews  of  the 
events  or  times  under  discussion.  Its  text  as  here  given  is  copied  from  "The  St.  Joseph 
Leacon"  (South  Bend,  Indiana)  of  September  29,  1832. 

596 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

memorial,  stating  that  certain  missionaries  in  the  State  of  Georgia  have 
been  imprisoned  for  alleged  offenses  against  the  State,  and  requesting 
my  interference  in  furthering  their  release. 

"In  reply  I  have  to  inform  you  that  the  power  vested  in  me  has  been 
placed  in  my  hands  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  justly  and  impartially  administered,  and  not  for  the  purpose  of 
abusing  them,  as  I  most  assuredly  should  do  wrere  I  to  interpose  my 
authority  in  the  case  brought  before  me  in  your  memorial.  The  State  of 
Georgia  is  governed  by  its  own  laws;  and  if  injustice  has  been,  or  is 
committed,  there  are  competent  tribunals  at  which  redress  can  be  ob- 
tained. I  do  not  wish  to  comment  upon  the  causes  of  the  imprisonment 
of  the  missionaries  alluded  to  in  the  memorial ;  but  I  cannot  refrain  from 
observing  that  here,  as  in  most  other  countries,  they  are,  by  their  injudi- 
cious zeal  (to  give  it  no  harsher  name)  too  apt  to  make  themselves 
obnoxious  to  those  among  whom  they  are  located. 

"ANDREW  JACKSON." 

During  the  same  period  wherein  Georgia  was 
declaring  her  nullification  of  national  law  with  the 
purpose  of  ousting  the  Indians,  South  Carolina  was 
threatening  to  take  like  action  toward  the  Federal 
collection  of  tariff  duties  within  her  boundaries.  Against 
South  Carolina's  attitude  Jackson  stood  like  adamant. 
In  his  dispute  with  that  commonwealth  he  took  the  ground 
that  nullification  was  inconceivable,  and  that  as  a  matter 
of  principle,  in  any  form,  was  not  to  be  tolerated.  Among 
his  utterances  on  the  subject,  made  at  the  time,  were  the 
following: 

"...  I  fully  concur  with  ycfU  in  your  views  of  nullification.  It 
leads  directly  to  civil  war  and  bloodshed  and  deserves  the  execration  of 
every  friend  of  our  country.  .  .  The  Union  must  be  preserved  and  its 
laws  duly  executed  by  proper  means.  .  .  We  must  act  as  the  instru- 
ments of  the  law,  and  if  force  is  opposed  to  us  in  that  capacity,  then  we 
shall  repel  it.  .  .  2 

Another  letter  said: 

".  .  .  In  forty  days  I  can  have  within  the  limits  of  So.  Carolina 
fifty  thousand  men,  and  in  forty  days  more  another  fifty  thousand.  .  . 

1  Worcester    and    the    other    missionaries    were    located    among    the    Cherokees    at    the 
desire  of  the  nation.     The  President  still  clung  to  the  assumption  that  they  were  located 
in  Georgia. 

2  Manuscript   letter   from   Jackson    to   Joel   Poinsett   of   South   Carolina,   under   date    of 
December  2,   1832.     Archives  of  the  Pennsylvania  Historical  Society. 

597 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

The  Union  will  be  preserved.     The  safety  of  the  republic,  the  supreme 
law,  which  will  be  promptly  obeyed  by  me.    .    .    .  "1 

Jackson's  public  expression  relating  to  state  nullifica- 
tion of  Federal  law  was  embodied  in  his  "Proclamation."2 
The  document  contained  this  passage: 

"I  consider  the  power  to  annul  the  law  of  the  United  States,  assumed 
by  one  state,  incompatible  with  the  existence  of  the  Union,  contradicted 
expressly  by  the  letter  of  the  Constitution,  unauthorized  by  its  spirit, 
inconsistent  with  every  principle  on  which  it  was  founded,  and  destruc- 
tive of  the  great  object  for  which  it  was  formed." 

A  third  private  message  to  Poinsett3  ran: 

"...  I  can,  if  need  be — which  God  forbear,  march  two  hundred 
thousand  men  in  forty  days  to  quell  any  and  every  insurrection  or  rebel- 
lion that  might  arise  to  threaten  our  glorious  confederacy  and  Union 
.  .  .  Fear  not,  the  Union  will  be  preserved  and  treason  and  rebellion 
promptly  put  down,  when  and  where  it  may  show  its  monster  head." 

The  letters  to  Poinsett  and  the  Board  of  Missions 
were  contemporaneous  with  the  nullification  crisis  as  it 
existed  in  two  states,  dealt  with  the  same  fundamental 
principle,  and  were  substantially  simultaneous  utter- 
ances. The  basic  question  in  the  two  cases  —  defiance 
of  Federal  law  by  an  individual  state  —  was  identical. 
Jackson's  attitude  in  each  was  diametrically  opposed 
to  the  position  he  concurrently  assumed  in  the 
other.  Public  opinion  upheld  him  in  both.  One 
state  was  subdued  in  a  tariff  argument;  the  other  was 
permitted  to  have  its  own  way  in  the  larger  matters  of 
property,  liberty  and  life.  It  was  seemingly,  then,  not 
the  principle  of  nullification  which  brought  forth  popular 
condemnation  and  Executive  pronouncements  threatening 
force  for  its  suppression,  but  the  particular  sort  of  nullifi- 
cation which  proposed  to  divide  the  white  nation  against 
itself.  That  other  and  graver  nullification  of  Federal 

1  Ibid.     Dated   December   9,  1832. 

2  Issued  on  December   16,  a  week  after  the  second  letter  to   Poinsett. 

3  Manuscript  letter   in   the   Pennsylvania   Historical   Society.      Date,   January   24,    1833. 

598 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

authority,  which  apparently  tended  to  increase  the  future 
strength  and  unity  of  the  white  nation,  was  tolerated  by 
the  people  and  their  official  representatives. 

Even  after  the  Supreme  Court,  by  its  judgment  in  the 
Worcester  case,  swept  away  the  Executive  contentions 
and  made  Jackson  the  only  competent  tribunal  to  which 
an  appeal  might  be  made  for  the  enforcement  of  law,  he 
remained  a  passive  spectator  of  the  proceedings  against 
the  natives  in  the  South. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

HOPES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  NATIONS  APPARENTLY  DE- 
STROYED BY  THE  SUPREME  COURT'S  FIRST  DECISION  — 
CHICKASAWS,  CREEKS  AND  SEMINOLES  CEDE  THEIR 
DOMAINS  EAST  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI — THE  PROMISE 
MADE  TO  THEM  —  IMPORTANCE  OF  THEIR  CAPITULA- 
TION—  A  TREATY  FINALLY  SIGNED  WITH  SOME  OF 
THE  CHEROKEES  —  IT  IS  REPUDIATED  BY  THE  RED 
NATION  —  THE  CHEROKEES  REDUCED  FROM  PROSPER- 
ITY TO  DISTRESS  —  THEY  ARE  REMOVED  TO  THE  WEST 
BY  A  FEDERAL  ARMY  —  OFFICIAL  COMMENT  ON  THE 
TRANSACTION  —  THE  EAST  AT  LAST  CLEARED  OF 
NATIVES  AND  A  TRANSPORTATION  SYSTEM  ON  UN- 
BROKEN WHITE  TERRITORY  IS  MADE  POSSIBLE  —  CON- 
CLUDING OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  RACE  QUARREL 

THE  action  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  case  of  the 
Cherokee  Nation  vs.  Georgia,  whereby  that  body 
declared  it  had  no  jurisdiction  in  a  native  appeal  against 
Caucasian  invasion  of  Indian  sovereignty,  seemingly 
killed  the  last  hope  of  the  southern  red  states.  They  saw 
no  help  could  be  expected  from  the  obstinate  old  warrior 
who  had  been  elevated  to  power  by  the  whites;  they  were 
shut  off  from  the  aid  which  might  have  been  gained 
through  legal  means,  and  could  no  longer  endure  the 
methods  employed  to  destroy  their  character  as  inde- 
pendent peoples  in  the  East.  Nothing  was  left  for  them 

600 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

but  to  fight  or  to  abandon  the  upward  struggle  begun  a 
generation  before  at  the  urging  of  the  Government  and 
Jefferson.1  So  they  capitulated.  Jackson  vigorously  con- 
tinued his  efforts  during  the  critical  year  of  1832,  and 
before  its  end  he  had  secured  treaties  under  which  the 
Chickasaws,  Creeks  and  Seminoles  ceded  all  their  posses- 
sions east  of  the  Mississippi  in  exchange  tor  lands  west  of 
that  river  and  the  customary  pledges. 

Article  XIV  of  the  Creek  treaty2  said: 

"The  Creek  country  west  of  the  Mississippi  shall  be  solemnly  guar- 
anteed to  the  Creek  Indians,  nor  shall  any  state  or  territory  ever  have 
a  right  to  pass  laws  for  the  government  of  such  Indians,  but  they  shall 
be  allowed  to  govern  themselves,  so  far  as  may  be  compatible  with  the 
general  jurisdiction  which  Congress  may  think  proper  to  exercise  over 
them."  3 

The  preamble  to  the  Chickasaw  treaty4  declared: 

"The  Chickasaw  nation  find  themselves  oppressed  in  their  present 
situation,  being  made  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  states  in  which  they 
reside.  Being  ignorant  of  the  language  and  laws  of  the  white  man  they 
cannot  understand  or  obey  them.  Rather  than  submit  to  this  great  evil 
they  prefer  to  seek  a  home  in  the  West,  where  they  may  live  and  be 
governed  by  their  own  laws.  5  .  .  " 

Had  the  Choctaws,  Creeks,  Chickasaws  and  Cherokees 
unitedly  withstood  the  pressure  on  them  until  after  the 
decision  in  the  Worcester  case  then  the  treaties  with  them 
would  not  have  been  written  as  they  were,  for  it  over- 
threw the  new  white  claim  that  those  Indian  nations  lived 
in  United  States  territory  and  were  subject  to  its  laws. 
That  contention,  jointly  maintained  during  the  crisis 

1  Associate   Justice    McLean,   who   concurred   with    Chief  Justice   Marshall   in   the   case 
of  Worcester  vs.   Georgia,  also  said  in  his  opinion:   "Would  it  not  be  a  singular  argument 
to  admit  that  so  long  as  the  Indians  governed  by  the  rifle  and  tomahawk  their  government 
may  be  tolerated;  but  that  it  must  be  suppressed  so  soon  as  it  shall  be  administered  upon 
the   enlightened   principles  of   reason   and  justice?" 

2  Dated   March   24,   1832. 

3  The    proviso    concerning    Congressional    jurisdiction    was    a    result    of    the    Supreme 
Court's    definition    of    Indian    states   as    "domestic    dependent   nations"    in    the    case    of   the 
Cherokees  against  Georgia. 

4  Dated   October   20,   1832. 

5  A   later   treaty   guaranteed   that   the    Chickasaw   possessions   in    the   West   should   be 
kept  "without  the  limits  of  any  State  or  Territory." 

601 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


179. — The  canal  era.  A  packet,  or  swift  canal  boat,  used  exclusively  for  pas- 
senger traffic.  It  maintained  a  steady  speed  of  three  or  four  miles  an  hour, 
both  day  and  night.  The  regular,  or  "line,"  boats  carried  freight  as  well 
as  passengers,  and  only  moved  at  the  rate  of  about  two  miles  an  hour. 
Done  by  the  artist  Alexander  Robb.  The  succeeding  twenty-six  illustrations, 
to  No.  205  inclusive,  concern  the  canal  period  and  life  while  travelling 
on  a  canal  boat. 

by  the  Executive,  the  southern  states  and  the  Supreme 
Court,  was  the  crucial  consideration  which  induced  the 
natives  to  cede  their  countries.  Had  they  waited 
a  little  longer  one  of  three  situations  must  appar- 
ently have  arisen.  Either  the  red  nations  of  the  South 
would  have  been  despoiled  by  organized  force  in  defiance 
of  law,  or  the  white  race  would  have  engaged  in  civil 
war  over  the  question,  or  else  the  Indian  states  would  have 
been  left  to  develop  in  peace,  thus  splitting  the  eastern 
half  of  the  present  white  republic  into  two  sections  sepa- 
rated in  part  by  foreign  soil  unless  the  Indians  had  after- 
ward consented  to  a  political  amalgamation  on  their  own 
terms.  Viewed  in  any  light  the  years  here  considered 
possess  a  relationship  to  the  later  development  of  the 
country  exceeded  in  importance  by  but  few  other  periods 
of  its  history. 

The  Cherokee  nation  was  the  only  native  common- 
wealth of  the  South1  which  had  not  committed  itself  to 
the  sale  of  its  territories  and  the  westward  emigration  of 
its  people  when  the  decision  in  the  Worcester  case  was 
announced.  That  decree  encouraged  them,  for  a  time, 
to  believe  they  might  still  maintain  their  position,  but 

1  And  the  only  important  red  state  east  of  the  Mississippi  either  North  or  South. 

602 


A  N 


ISTORICAL    ACCOUNT 


OF      THE 


RISE,    PROGRESS    AND    PRESENT    STATE 


The  Canal  Navigation  in  Pennfylvania. 

WITH     AN     A  P*P  E  N  D  I  X, 

CONTAINING, 

Abftra&s  of  the  /itlt  of  the  Lt^iflature  fmce  the  Year  1790,   and  their  Grants  of 
Money  for  improving  ROADS  and  NAVIGABLE  WATERS  throughout  the  Stat&$ 


«  A  N     EXPLANATORY     MA  P." 


PUBLISHED     BY     DIRECTION     OF     THE      TRESIDENT     AND      MANAGERS     OP     THS      SCHUVLKItL      ANO 
SUS<y.'EHANNA,  AXD    THE    BEIAWARE    AND    SCHUTLKILI.    NAVIGATION    COMPANIES. 


*  Here  fiaoMh  CAHALS,  acrofs  th'  extended  plain 
Stretch  their  long  arms  to  join  the  diftant  main. 
The  Sons  of  Toil,  with  m?.ny  a  weary  ftrokc, 
Scoor.  the  hard  bofom  of  t!ic  folid  rock; 
Refiftlefs  tlirougJi  the  ftiff,  oppoiinj-  c'ay. 
With  fteady  patience,  work  tiicir  gradual  way; 
•  Compel  tlic  Genius  of  th'  unwilling  Cooil, 
Through  the  brown  horrors  of  ll;t  aged  wood; 
Oofs  the  lone  wafte  the  f.lv; r  urn  tlu'y  pour, 
And  cheer  the  barren  heuth,  or  fallen  mt  or. 
The  travtUer,  with  ploufis'..?  ^•"   '••''• 
The  white  fail  .gleaming  tl»ro«g!;  the  dofKy  trees; 


And  views  the  alter'd  landfcape  with  furprize, 
Am!  doubts  the  ifcagic  ffenc^  which  round  him  rife, 
New,  like  a  Hock  of  fwans,  above  his  head, 
Their  woven  wings  the  flying  vtJlels  fprcad; 
Now,  meeting  ftrcams,  in  artful  ma7.es,  glide, 
While  each,  unming.ed,  pours  a  i'cpsrate  tide; 
Now,  through  the  hidden  veins  of  earth  they  flow, 
And  vifit  i'uij"'iUrous  mines  ;m<i  caves  below. 
^  The  disfi-ilc  flre,i:ns  obey  tlie-guiding  hand, 
And  facial  Plenty  crowns  the  HAPPY  I.AND  !" 


PHILADELPHIA* 

?R!NTED    BY    ZACHARIA'H    POVLSON,    Jl'N'IOR,    KUMBER.    EIGHTY,    CHESNUT-STREST, 

M  DCC  XCV. 


180. — Early  literature  relating  to  travel  in  America.  First  American  printed 
book  on  the  subject  of  canals.  Although  published  in  Philadelphia  in 
1795,  five  years  after  Fitch  had  operated  his  steamboat  as  a  public  con- 
veyance on  the  Delaware  River,  the  book  contains  no  reference  to  the  pos- 
sible use  of  steam  in  connection  with  transportation. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

the  hope  was  short  lived.  An  uninterrupted  series  of 
local  harassments  still  pressed  upon  them,  and  in  the 
face  of  these  troubles  a  portion  of  the  red  farmers  and 
artisans  gradually  lost  some  of  their  former  spirit  of 
resistance.  The  Federal  white  government,  in  addition, 
continued  its  pressure  upon  certain  of  the  important  na- 
tives in  an  effort  to  win  their  consent  to  a  treaty.  This 
endeavor  was  at  last  successful,  and  in  18351  about  twenty 
officials  of  the  nation  signed  a  paper  purporting  to  embody 
the  consent  of  all  the  Cherokees,  and  which  ceded  to  the 
United  States  the  red  nation's  possessions  east  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi in  exchange  for  some  seven  millions  of  acres  in 
the  West.  Some  of  the  guarantees  made  by  the  United 
States  in  the  agreement  were  as  follows: 

"Article  V. — The  United  States  hereby  covenant  and  agree  that  the 
lands  ceded  to  the  Cherokee  nation  in  the  foregoing  article  shall,  in  no 
future  time  without  their  consent,  be  included  within  the  territorial 
limits  or  jurisdiction  of  any  State  or  Territory.  But  they  shall  secure  to 
the  Cherokee  nation  the  right  by  their  national  councils  to  make  and  carry 
into  effect  all  such  laws  as  they  may  deem  necessary  for  the  government 
and  protection  of  the  persons  and  property  within  their  own  country  be- 
longing to  their  people  or  such  persons  as  have  connected  themselves  with 
them :  provided  always  that  they  shall  not  be  inconsistent  with  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  and  such  acts  of  Congress  as  have  been  or  may 
be  passed  regulating  trade  or  intercourse  with  the  Indians;  and  also,  that 
they  shall  not  be  considered  as  extending  to  such  citizens  and  army  of 
the  United  States  as  may  travel  or  reside  in  the  Indian  country  by 
permission  according  to  the  laws  and  regulations  established  by  the 
Government  of  the  same."  : 

"Article  VII. — The  Cherokee  nation  having  already  made  great 
progress  in  civilization  and  deeming  it  important  that  every  proper  and 
laudable  inducement  should  be  offered  to  their  people  to  improve  their 
condition  as  well  as  to  guard  and  secure  in  the  most  effectual  manner 
the  rights  guaranteed  to  them  in  this  treaty,  and  with  a  view  to  illus- 
trate the  liberal  and  enlarged  policy  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  toward  the  Indians  in  their  removal  beyond  the  territorial  limits 
of  the  States,  it  is  stipulated  that  they  shall  be  entitled  to  a  delegate 

1  December   29th.     The   treaty   of  New  Echota. 

2  The    last    clause    is    ambiguous    and    obscure.      The    Cherokees    understood    that    the 
"permission,"  "laws"  and  "reguktions"  referred  to  were  to  be  of  their  making,  since  their 
country  was  the  last  that  had  been  previously   mentioned  in  the  clause. 

604 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  whenever  Con- 
gress shall  make  provision  for  the  same." 

In  another  article  of  the  document  the  United  States 
recognized  the  illegal  despoilment  of  the  natives  during 
the  previous  seven  years  by  agreeing  to  recompense  them 
for  "such  improvements  and  ferries  from  which  they  have 
been  dispossessed  in  a  lawless  manner  or  under  any  exist- 
ing laws  of  the  state  where  the  same  may  be  situated." 

That  this  treatv  sale  of  the  native  lands  did  not  cor- 

j 

rectly  represent  the  attitude  of  the  Cherokee  population 
was  indicated  by  the  assassination  of  several  native  signers 
of  the  document  who  were  denounced  as  traitors,  and  by  a 
general  refusal  of  the  Indians  to  abide  by  its  terms.1  To 
such  an  extreme  degree  did  a  large  proportion  of  the  na- 
tion carry  repudiation  of  the  transaction  that,  though  grad- 
ually ousted  from  their  homes  and  farms  by  invading 
whites  and  brought  to  poverty,  they  refused  food,  clothing 
or  other  aid  from  the  Federal  government  for  fear  they 
would  be  considered,  by  that  act,  as  acknowledging 
the  validity  of  the  treaty.2  From  a  condition  of  prosperity 
and  comfort  they  were  reduced  to  hunger,  and  lived  on 
roots  and  the  sap  of  trees.3  Early  in  1837  the  nation  met 
in  council  at  their  settlement  of  Red  Clay  and  denounced 
the  compact  of  New  Echota.  Other  features  of  the  as- 
semblage at  Red  Clay  were  religious  services  attended  by 
several  thousands  of  the  Indians,  and  their  united  sing- 
ing of  hymns  translated  into  the  Cherokee  language.4  By 
this  time  the  patience  of  President  Jackson  —  never  not- 
able for  its  enduring  qualities  —  had  been  exhausted,  and 
finally  realizing  that  he  was  dealing  with  an  unusual 

1  Even  after   the  two  years  within   which  the   removal   was  to   take  place. 

2  One   of   its   sections   stated   that  the   nation   had  been   so  beset   that   "their   crops   are 
insufficient  to  support  their   families,  and  great  distress  is   likely  to   ensue,"  and  provided 
for  an  advancement  of   Federal  money  to  be  used  in  the  relief  of  suffering. 

3  "Thousands,  I  have  been  informed,  had  no  other  foods  for  weeks."     General  Wool's 
Report  of  1837  to  the  War  Department. 

4  "Early    Indian    Missions,"   by    Walter   N.    Wyeth,   p.    42. 

605 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


181. — Building  the  first  important  artificial  waterway.     Scene  during  the  digging 

of    a    deep    cut   on    the    Erie    Canal    in    New    York    State.      Published 

in   1825,  just  after  the  entire  work  was  put  in  operation. 

people  who  were  in  earnest  he  turned  with  reluctance 
to  his  one  remaining  method  of  persuasion  —  the  bayonet. 
The  United  States  possessed  its  signed  copy  of  the  compact 
of  1835  promising  evacuation  of  their  territories  by  the 
Cherokees,  and  they  had  to  go.  Treaties  made  by  nations 
with  one  another  must  be  kept.  A  Federal  army  was  ac- 
cordingly sent  into  the  Cherokee  country  in  the  winter  of 
1838-1839  and  General  Scott,  its  commander,  issued  to 
the  red  nation  the  following  proclamation  in  the  spring  of 
the  last  named  year: 

"Cherokees: — The  President  of  the  United  States  has  sent  me  with 
a  powerful  army  to  cause  you,  in  obedience  to  the  treaty  of  1835,  to 
join  that  part  of  your  people  who  are  already  established  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Mississippi.  .  .  .  The  emigration  must  be  commenced 
in  haste,  but  I  hope  without  disorder.  I  have  no  power,  by  granting 
a  further  delay,  to  correct  the  error  that  you  have  committed.  The 
full  moon  of  May  is  already  on  the  wane,  and  before  another  shall 
have  passed  away  every  Cherokee  man,  woman  and  child  in  these  States 

606 


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A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

must  be  in  motion  to  join  their  brethren  in  the  West.  .  .  .  My 
troops  already  occupy  many  positions  in  the  country  that  you  are  to 
abandon,  and  thousands  are  approaching  from  every  quarter,  to  render 
resistance  and  escape  alike  hopeless.  .  .  .  Spare  me,  I  beseech 
you,  the  horror  of  witnessing  the  destruction  of  the  Cherokees. 
This  is  the  address  of  a  warrior  to  warriors.  May  its  entreaties  be 
kindly  received,  and  may  the  God  of  both  prosper  the  Americans  and 
Cherokees,  and  preserve  them  long  in  peace  and  friendship  with  each 
other." 

The  Cherokees  offered  no  physical  resistance.  Dur- 
ing the  last  days  of  May  the  troops  began  the  task  of 
collecting  them  into  camps  preliminary  to  their  exodus, 
and  the  process  continued  for  two  or  three  weeks.  A 
highly  colored  description  of  the  scenss  and  conditions 
attending  this  final  downfall  of  Indian  government  east 
of  the  Mississippi  was  written  by  a  white  missionary 
present  at  the  time.  It  says  in  part: 

"The  Cherokees  are  nearly  all  prisoners.  They  have  been  dragged 
from  their  houses  and  encamped  at  the  forts  and  military  posts  all  over 
the  Nation.  In  Georgia,  especially,  multitudes  were  allowed  no  time 
to  take  anything  with  them  except  the  clothes  they  had  on.  Well- 
furnished  houses  were  left  a  prey  to  plunderers,  who,  like  hungry 
wolves,  follow  in  the  train  of  the  captors.  These  wretches  rifle  the 
houses  and  strip  the  helpless,  inoffending  owners  of  all  they  have  on 
earth.  Females  who  have  been  habituated  to  comforts  and  compara- 
tive affluence  are  driven  on  foot  before  the  bayonets  of  brutal  men. 
Their  feelings  are  mortified  by  vulgar  and  profane  vociferations.  It  is 
a  painful  sight.  The  property  of  many  has  been  taken  and  sold  before 
their  eyes  for  almost  nothing — the  sellers  and  buyers,  in  many  cases, 
being  combined  to  cheat  the  poor  Indians.  .  .  .  The  poor  captive, 
in  a  state  of  distressing  agitation,  his  weeping  wife  almost  frantic  with 
terror,  surrounded  by  a  group  of  crying,  terrified  children,  without  a 
friend  to  speak  a  consoling  word,  is  in  a  poor  condition  to  make  a  good 
disposition  of  his  property  and  is,  in  most  cases,  stripped  of  the  whole 
at  one  blow.  And  this  is  not  a  description  of  extreme  cases.  .  .  ."l 

1  From  an  account  written  by  Evan  Jones,  of  the  Baptist  Mission  to  the  Cherokees, 
and  contained  in  Wyeth's  "Early  Indian  Missions,"  (p.  43)  previously  mentioned.  Pos- 
sibly Jones'  obvious  desire  to  put  the  actions  of  the  soldiers  in  the  most  unfortunate  light 
was  to  some  extent  due  to  the  fact  that  he  himself  had  been  arrested  and  deported 
from  Cherokee  territory  in  1836.  Yet  it  is  apparent  that  the  migration  of  the  south- 
ern nations  djd  result  in  heavy  property  losses  to  them,  for  the  Cherokees  and  Creeks 
alone  were  able  to  prove  such  damaces  as  Jones  described  to  the  extent  of  about  a  m'l- 
lion  dollars.  In  1838  the  United  States  agreed  by  treaty  to  pay  to  the  Creeks  $400,000 
for  "property  and  improvements  abandoned  or  lost"  in  their  emigration.  The  Cherokees 
were  allotted  $600,000  for  expenses  and  losses  incidental  to  their  removal  westward.  Jones, 
the  missionary,  together  with  a  few  other  wh:te  men,  accompanied  the  nation  on  its  over- 
land journey  in  an  endeavor  to  keep  its  members  in  good  cheer. 

608 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

The  total  number  of  Cherokees  to  be  moved  was  some 
eighteen  thousand.  The  government  planned  to  have 
about  half  of  them  make  the  journey  of  seven  hundred 
miles  on  foot.  Against  this  project  the  nation  protested 
and  asked  the  privilege  of  conveyance  by  wagons,  esti- 
mating the  cost  at  $65,000  for  each  thousand  persons  so 
transported  and  offering  to  let  the  expense  be  charged 
against  themselves.  Regarding  this  request  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Indian  Affairs  reported:  "As  their  own  funds 
pay  it,  and  it  was  insisted  on  by  their  own  confiden- 
tial agents,  it  was  thought  it  could  not  be  rejected." 
The  officials  of  the  nation  also  noted  the  omission  of 
soap  from  the  list  of  supplies  to  be  furnished  during 
the  trip,  and  that  article  was  also  provided  for  the 
Indians. 

It  was  at  first  intended  by  the  government,  as  set  forth 
in  General  Scott's  manifesto,  to  conduct  the  movement 
during  the  hot  months  of  summer,  but  such  an  earnest 
objection  to  this  procedure  was  made  by  the  Indians  that 
after  three  thousand  of  them  had  been  started  away  dur- 
ing June  the  remainder  were  held  in  camp  until  Septem- 
ber. The  road  taken  by  the  red  emigrants  was  by  way 
of  Nashville,  in  Tennessee,  and  from  three  to  five  months 
was  consumed  on  the  pilgrimage  by  each  of  the  fourteen 
detachments  into  which  the  whole  body  of  natives  was 
divided.  From  May  23d,  when  the  enforced  assemblage 
of  the  nation  was  begun  by  the  troops  until  the  last  com- 
pany reached  its  new  home  in  the  West,  a  period  of  ten 
months  elapsed.  The  number  of  Cherokees  who  died  on 
the  way  was  more  than  four  thousand  —  not  far  from 
twenty-two  per  cent,  of  those  who  started.  After  the  terms 
of  the  treaty  of  1835  had  been  fulfilled  the  Commissioner 

609 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

of   Indian  Affairs  made  a   report  on  the  movement  in 
which  he  said: 

"The  case  of  the  Cherokees  is  a  striking  example  of  the  liberality 
of  the  Government  in  all  its  branches.  ...  A  retrospect  of  the 
last  eight  months  in  reference  to  this  numerous  and  more  than  ordi- 
narily enlightened  tribe  cannot  fail  to  be  refreshing  to  well-constituted 
minds." 

The  Secretary  of  War  said  in  his  report: 

"The  generous  and  enlightened  policy  evinced  in  the  measures 
adopted  by  Congress  toward  that  people  during  the  last  session  was 
ably  and  judiciously  carried  into  effect  by  the  General  appointed.  .  .  . 
Humanity  no  less  than  good  policy  dictated  this  course  toward  these 
children  of  the  forest,"  [which  course  was  adopted  |  "in  the  hope  of 
preserving  the  Indians  and  of  maintaining  the  peace  and  tranquillity 
of  the  whites." 

The  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  further  stated 
that 

"If  our  acts  have  been  generous,  they  have  not  been  less  wise  and 


183. — Invitation  issued  by  New  York  City  to  its  guests  on  the  occasion  of  the 
formal  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal.  When  the  steamboat  reached  Sandy 
Hook,  some  water  brought  irom  Lake  Erie  was  poured  overboard  to 
symbolize  the  union  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Ocean. 

610 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

politic.  A  large  mass  of  men  have  been  conciliated;  the  hazard  of  an 
effusion  of  human  blood  has  been  put  by;  good  feeling  has  been  pre- 
served, and  we  have  quietly  and  gently  transported  eighteen  thousand 
friends  to  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi."  1 

The  conditions  and  events  outlined  in  the  last  few 
chapters  indicate  in  a  general  way  the  relations  of  the  two 
races  between  1789  and  1838.  Such  were  the  methods 
used  throughout  the  country,  both  North  and  South,  in 
clearing  the  region  east  of  the  Mississippi  for  white  move- 
ment and  dominion,  and  that  constituted  the  foundation 
on  which  the  white  race  erected  the  unparallelled  system 
of  highways,  canals  and  railroads  by  whose  means  the 
nation  was  finally  bound  into  one  homogeneous  social 
unit.  The  crisis  to  the  Indian  question  was  reached  dur- 
ing General  Jackson's  administration  and  was  met  by  him 
in  the  manner  described.  Yet  the  small  segment  of  Jack- 
son's character  and  executive  record  here  suggested  can- 
not be  taken  as  a  picture  of  the  whole  man.  He  embodied, 
in  extreme  degree,  nearly  all  the  excellencies  as  well  as 
many  of  the  defects  typical  of  the  time  in  which  he  was 
such  an  overmastering  figure.  Superlative  in  vehemence, 
ignorance,  obstinacy,  contradiction  and  narrowness,  he 
was  also  equally  astonishing  in  chivalry,  valor,  power, 
perception  and  the  courage  of  right  purpose  in  many  vital 
things.  He  was  a  product  of  the  days  that  beheld  him, 
and  no  understanding  of  his  character  in  its  entirety  may 
be  gathered  without  broad  knowledge  of  the  social 
crucible  in  which  he  was  compounded.  In  discussing  his 
relation  to  the  Indian  question  his  most  ambitious  early 
biographer  said  of  him:2 

"To  this  part  of  the  policy  of  General  Jackson  praise  little  qualified 

1  By    his    expression    "human    blood"    the    Commissioner    refers    to    the    hazard    of    an 
effusion  of  white  men's  blood,  due  to  the  previous  possibility  of  civil  war  over  the  Indian 
question.     His  error  in  the  number  of  natives  transported  is  due  to   using  the  number  of 
Cherokees  who   started   on   the  journey. 

2  Parton,  in  the  "Life  of  Andrew  Jackson":  New  York,  1860.     Volume  III,  pp.  279-280. 

611 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

can  be  justly  awarded.  The  irrevocable  logic  of  events  first  decreed 
and  then  justified  the  removal  of  the  Indians.  Nor  need  we,  at  this 
late  day,  revive  the  sad  details  of  a  measure  which,  hard  and  cruel  as 
it  was  then  thought,  is  now  universally  felt  to  have  been  as  kind  as  it 
was  necessary." 

To-day  we  challenge  the  manner  in  which  that  opinion 
was  set  down.  It  is  not  the  province  of  the  student  or  his- 
torian to  suppress  those  essential  details  —  whatever  their 
character  may  be  —  without  which  no  appreciation  of  the 
relationships  of  past  and  present  events  can  be  obtained ;  it 
is  not  his  function  to  award  praise  or  condemnation  with- 
out presenting  the  principal  features  of  the  case  on  which 
the  verdict  is  based.  He  must  tell  what  has  happened, 
and  how  it  happened,  and  leave  the  final  verdict  in  other 
hands  than  his.  Then,  if  he  choose,  he  may  express  his 
own  opinions  and  accept  the  risk  which  such  a  course 
entails. 

In  considering  those  governmental  promises  which 
finally  brought  about  a  trans-Mississippi  migration  of  the 
Indians  without  warfare  our  chief  present  speculation 
must  be:  Were  such  words  set  down  in  duplicity,  or 
were  they  a  genuine  manifestation  of  the  stupidity  which 
their  honesty  presupposes.  The  mind  shrinks  from  adopt- 
ing either  theory,  yet  one  or  the  other  must  seemingly  be 
true.  If  the  promises  were  honest  pledges  made  in  the 
light  of  what  had  taken  place  after  similar  negotiations 
for  nearly  two  centuries,  then  the  creation  of  a  mental 
vacuity  sufficient  to  produce  them  is,  at  least,  a  comforting- 
evidence  of  the  resources  of  Omnipotence. 

Considered  in  all  its  aspects  the  subject  is  one  that 
has  not  yet  been  treated  with  detail  in  written  accounts  of 
our  formative  period.1  Chroniclers,  in  describing  the  era, 
have  dwelt  largely  on  the  finer  sentiments,  valor,  political 

1  In  any  one  connected  narrative.     Nor  is  it  so  treated  here. 

612 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

quarrels  and  worthy  accomplishments  of  its  principal  fig- 
ures. So  much  attention  has  been  paid  to  those  phases  of 
the  time  that  the  designs  and  deeds  of  the  people  as  a  mass, 
and  related  actions  taken  by  public  servants  in  accordance 
with  popular  desire  have  been  skimped  or  omitted  alto- 
gether. So  commonly  has  this  oversight  occurred  that  it 
has  sometimes  seemed  as  though  the  particular  phase  of 
national  development  here  discussed  was  looked  upon 
somewhat  as  a  skeleton-in-the-closet,  and,  if  it  were  in 
truth  such,  that  no  good  could  come  of  throwing  wide  the 
door.  By  and  by  the  bones  would  crumble  and  be  for- 
gotten. Or,  if  the  ends  attained  by  popular  and  govern- 
mental action  from  1794  to  1839  were  of  necessity  to  be 
reviewed,  then  it  has  seemed  that  the  immediate  material 
value  of  those  results  was  considered  as  the  essential  fea- 
ture of  the  story  demanding  attention.  The  motives  and' 
methods  used  in  obtaining  the  results,  it  appeared,  need 
be  but  lightly  touched.  The  things  that  happened  were 
condoned  as  inevitable  because  the  red  men  of  the  East 
were  still  popularly  considered  to  be  a  race  of  savages. 
General  Washington's  opinion  that  a  treaty  with  the  In- 
dians was  a  sop  to  quiet  them  was  lamented  as  a  thought- 
less indiscretion,  and  the  recompense  therein  contained 
was  overlooked.  For  candor  like  that  is  surely  a  sufficient 
basis  on  which  to  build  the  Isgend  that  he  never  told  a  lie. 
But  there  may  be  a  value  in  the  record  of  these  somber 
years  which  is  not  yet  utilized.  The  story  of  the  civic 
and  military  glories  of  a  nation's  vanished  heroes  is  not 
of  necessity  the  wholesomest  food  on  which  to  rear  its 
later  citizens.  While  men  remain  what  they  are,  the  tale 
of  their  deeds  will  not  be  one  to  inspire  admiration  only. 
Heroes  make  mistakes.  A  whole  population  can  be  car- 
ried away  by  an  impulse  that  breeds  ignoble  things.  The 

613 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

thought,  attitude,  practises  and  entire  life  of  a  nation,  at 
any  given  time,  is  a  product  of  the  human  qualities  that 
have  swayed  its  preceding  generations.1  Whatever  is 
excellent  in  a  nation's  life,  whether  it  be  of  old  inheritance 
or  sudden  acquisition,  is  clearly  to  be  seen  and  readily  ac- 
counted for.  Those  other  and  dangerous  traits,  that  at 
times  steal  like  a  poison  through  the  character  of  a  people 
until  it  is  in  peril  of  decay,  are  not  so  easily  explained. 
Yet  they  too  have  their  origin,  and  it  is  always  to  be 
sought  in  some  widespread  condition  that  presents  to  the 
people  a  choice  between  moral  principles  and  material 
benefit  at  a  time  when  the  worldly  profit  can  apparently 
be  grasped  without  harm  to  themselves  or  to  their  country. 
If  they  then  yield  to  temptation  and  resort  to  methods 
which  win  them  earth-power  at  the  expense  of  principle, 
they  excuse  themselves  with  the  belief  that  only  their  in- 
creased opulence  will  descend  to  the  future.  They  do 
not  see  that  the  chief  inheritance  they  bequeath  is  a  broad 
example  of  wrong  committed  and  wealth  unfairly  gained 
without  incurrence  of  risk  or  penalty.  And  the  succeed- 
ing generation,  thus  corrupted  before  its  birth  by  the 
worldly  benefits  awaiting  its  arrival  as  the  result  of  such 
procedure,  is  not  only  forced  into  a  defense  of  the  sordid 
methods  by  which  those  riches  were  obtained,  but  is  itself 
encouraged,  in  its  turn,  to  continue  the  same  policy  of 
unfair  acquisition  from  whatsoever  class  may  appear  to 
be  its  safest  victim. 

May  it  not  be  possible  that  in  the  treatment  accorded 
to  the  red  men  by  the  American  nation  from  its  organiza- 
tion until  1839  is  to  be  found  an  inciting  cause  of  that 
insidious  malady  whereof  fraud,  corruption  and  violence 

1  "A  Review  of  the  Sinister  Phases  of  American  History:  Their  Causes,  Relations  and 
Later  Effects  on  the  Thought,  Practises  and  Life  of  the  People,"  is  a  needed  book  which 
has  not  yet  been  written. 

614 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


184. — An  example   of   the   numerous   private   medals   and   advertisements   issued 

in  celebration  of  the  construction  of  the  Erie  Canal,  and  of  similar  early 

public  improvements.     Brass.     Actual  size.     Date,  1823. 

are  the  outward  symptoms,  which  has  since  persistently 
spread  and  wrought  such  harm  to  the  people?  It  was 
during  the  years  under  discussion,  and  through  associa- 
tion and  dealings  with  the  Indians,  that  a  large  class  of 
Americans  first  had  the  opportunity,  yielded  to  the  temp- 
tation, and  applied  on  an  extensive  scale  the  corrupt  art 
of  getting  something  of  great  value  for  little  or  nothing. 
The  practise,  long  existent  in  lesser  degree,  finally  became 
general  wherever  and  whenever  chance  for  its  use  was 
possible,  and  was  carried  on  by  individual  and  govern- 
ment alike.  Many  of  the  methods  used,  together  with  the 
success  attending  them,  have  been  suggested.  So  wide- 
spread, safe,  productive  and  long-continued  was  the 
malign  yet  effective  white  system  for  self-enrichment  at 
the  expense  of  the  natives  that  it  affected,  either  directly 
or  indirectly,  a  majority  proportion  of  the  population  and 
all  classes  of  society.  Many  frontier  communities  existed 
chiefly  by  virtue  of  the  process.  In  distant  cities,  far 
removed  from  direct  contact  with  the  operation,  were 
business  men  whose  fortunes  swelled  through  deeds  or 
conditions  they  did  not  personally  see.  The  government 
ceaselessly  bought  native  territory  at  an  average  of  a  few 
cents  an  acre1  and  sold  it  to  settlers  at  two  dollars  an  acre, 
or  else  disposed  of  extensive  tracts  to  speculators  who 

1  Less  than  3^   cents  an  acre  up  to  1825.     See  Appendix. 

615 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

fattened  without  labor  at  the  expense  of  other  factors  in 
the  transaction. 

The  whole  process  was  so  simple  and  its  immediate 
material  profits  so  immense  that  the  white  race  soon  found 
itself  gazing  with  complaisance  on  an  almost  national 
use  of  trickery,  deceit,  robbery  and  violence  in  the  pursuit 
of  gain.  Those  whites  who  were  of  contrary  mind  did 
indeed  protest,  but  their  objections  were  overruled  by 
avarice  and  a  predominant  and  perhaps  partly  genuine 
opinion —  coming  from  exalted  station  as  well  as  from 
the  general  public  —  that  nothing  but  blessings  to  civil- 
ization could  result  from  events  and  methods  then  in 
progress. 

If  an  apportionment  of  responsibility  for  conditions 
then  existing  could  now  be  made,  it  is  probable  that  the 
chief  burden  would  fall  on  those  who,  in  high  office,  either 
yielded  to  the  clamor  of  evil  voices  or  themselves  served 
as  examples  to  the  mass  of  the  population.  No  people  - 
when  unmoved  by  the  hysteria  of  warfare  —  has  been 
more  keen  than  this  in  estimating  the  essential  qualities 
of  its  public  men;  none  has  been  more  quick  to  advance 
or  halt  in  harmony  with  the  will  of  real  strength  and  lead- 
ership on  the  isolated  occasions  of  their  display.  They 
have  responded  to  the  eloquence  of  honest  purpose  simply 
stated,  and  sensed  the  falseness  of  an  unsound  argument. 
When  a  President  said  he  would  use  the  power  of  the 
Federal  Union  to  preserve  to  the  Indians  those  rights 
guaranteed  to  them  since  the  foundation  of  the  govern- 
ment the  country  knew  he  meant  it,  and  the  destruction 
of  the  native  commonwealths  paused  until  a  season  more 
convenient  for  its  accomplishment.  During  the  years 
under  review  the  people,  as  always,  were  balancing  the 

616 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

words  of  public  servants  with  their  performances,  and 
observing  a  general  inconsistency  between  those  man- 
ifestations of  national  policy,  themselves  proceeded 
along  the  indicated  road  of  action  rather  than  by  the 
path  of  rhetoric.  Thus  the  final  tragedy  was  brought 
about. 

Yet  there  was  one  bright  side  to  the  picture;  bright, 
at  least,  in  its  ethical  aspect.  The  Indians,  in  still  forcing 
themselves  to  believe  and  to  trust,  reached  in  the  con- 
summation of  their  final  defeat  a  height  they  could  not 
have  climbed  by  the  aid  of  any  alien  civilization.  It 
could  only  have  been  attained  through  the  manifestation 
of  their  character  as  men.  When  they  once  again  took 
up  their  western  ways;  without  warfare,  leaving  behind 
their  immemorial  country  fresh-covered  by  evidences 
of  intelligence  and  thrift,  and  with  courage  set  out  to 
build  anew  in  a  distant  land,  they  won  a  victory  which 
need  not  fear  comparison  with  the  triumph  of  their  con- 
querors. 

At  last  they  were  alone  and  safe  again.  The  ranks 
of  their  people  were  thinned  and  the  new  country  was 
not  as  the  one  they  had  given  up,  but  they  were  free,  of 
the  ceaseless  wrangle;  free  to  grow.  So  they  built  their 
villages  once  more,  planted  their  fields,  re-established 
their  affairs  and  clung  to  the  words  of  the  Great  White 
Father;  dreaming  that  some  day  they  also  might  stand 
and  speak  in  the  vast  stone  Council  House  on  the  shore 
of  the  far  Potomac. 

When  the  native  possessions  east  of  the  Mississippi 
had  finally  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  white  race,  and 
the  red  men  for  a  time  had  retired  beyond  easy  access, 
the  practises  of  which  they  had  been  the  victims  did  not 
disappear.  Their  employment  was  shifted  to  a  new  quar- 

617 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

ter.1  Instead  of  a  substantially  intact  alignment  of  Cauca- 
sians against  natives  the  white  race  became  divided 
against  itself,  and  the  type  that  systematically  seeks  to 
gain  wealth,  power,  or  both,  by  fraud  cloaked  in  outward 
respectability  has  since  existed;  not  as  a  sporadic  exhibit 
but  as  a  large,  recognizable,  organized  and  material  fac- 
tor of  society.  Every  basic  method  of  the  system  first 
widely  employed  against  the  Indians  has  continued  to 
flourish  and  has  been  deftly  applied  to  new  conditions  as 
they  arose.  The  general  employment  of  violence  against 
human  life,  together  with  popular  indifference  to  the 
value  of  human  life  has  also  persisted.  In  governmental 
corruption,  commercial  immorality,  crimes  of  violence 
and  carelessness  of  human  rights  and  welfare  the  United 
States  has  consistently  held,  since  the  era  under  discussion, 
a  separate  place  among  nations  similarly  advanced  in  the 
surface  manifestations  of  civilization.2 

The  rise  of  such  an  abnormal  condition  predicates  an 
inciting  cause  commensurate  with  its  effect.  If  it  be  true 
that  one  origin  of  the  grave  dangers  to  popular  welfare 
here  enumerated  is  to  be  found  in  the  methods  employed 
by  our  predecessors  in  seeking  wealth  and  aggrandizement 
at  the  expense  of  the  Indian,  then  the  nation  has  suffered 
memorable  chastisement.  And  if  these  suggestions  are 
sound,  then  it  is  not  by  adulation  of  earlier  physical  hero- 

1  A   comparison    of  the   inter-relations   of   the   whites   in    commercial   and   allied   affairs 
of   life — as  those   relations   existed   prior   to    1789 — with   the   similar    inter-relations   of   the 
whites  from  about  1835  onward,  discloses  a  marked  alteration  in  the  general  standards  of 
action  by  which  those  affairs  were  usually  conducted.     A  new  element,  unfortunate  in  its 
influence,  had  apparently  entered  into  the  moral  character  of  t'*e  people  as  a  whole. 

2  Several   of  the  present   standardized   methods   of  commercial   trickery,   fraud  and  un- 
fairness, such  as  are  employed  against  individuals,  each  procure  for  their  users  a  revenue 
of    more    than    a    hundred    million    dollars    a    year,    obtained    from    those    whose    trust    is 
invited.     The  extent  of  governmental  corruption  in   American  cities  and  states  during  the 
past  two  generations,  together  with  its  relation  to  national  legislation,  require  no  comment. 
The  annual  murders  of  the  country  are  numbered  in  t'-e  tens  of  thousands;   other  crimes 
of    violence    are   in    proportion,    and    several    hundred    thousand    human   beings   are    yearly 
killed    or    gravely    injured    by    industrial   processes,    nearly   all    of   which    economic   loss    is 
preventable.    It  is  proper  to  say,  however,  that  during  very  recent  years,  and  more  specially 
during   the    four   years   devoted   to   the   writing   of   this   book,    numerous   encouraging   indi- 
cations of   a   public   awakening  to    the   significance   of  these   perilous   conditions,   and   of  a 
desire  to  combat  the  disease  of  which  they  are  symptoms,  have  appeared. 

618 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

ism  or  political  patriotism  that  the  needs  of  this  and  after 
times  will  be  most  surely  satisfied.  Only  by  searching  into 
the  darker  pages  of  the  national  story;  by  analyzing  mo- 
tives; studying  methods;  observing  results  and  gazing  be- 
hind the  panorama  of  superficial  fame  can  we  find 
inspiration  to  correct  the  present  effects  of  mistakes 
already  made  and  most  surely  fortify  ourselves  against 
the  making  of  new  ones.  While  we  condone  what 
should  not  have  been  done,  so  long  will  we  tolerate 
eradicable  consequences  of  former  error  and  run  the 
risk  of  more. 

Whatever  of  blame  may  rest  upon  the  people  of 
America  for  certain  methods  it  pursued  in  upbuilding 
and  connecting  the  several  parts  of  its  present  continental 
empire  does  not  lie  on  scattered  communities  or  states 
alone.  The  attitude  of  Georgia,  Alabama  and  Missis- 
sippi toward  Choctaw,  Cherokee,  Chickasaw  and  Creek 
was  but  motive-brother  to  the  deeds  committed  by  Ohio, 
Illinois  and  Indiana  toward  Wyandot,  Sac,  Shawnee  and 
Potawatomi.  If  one  region  attained  its  end  by  intimi- 
dation and  craft,  so  also  did  the  other  gain  its  purpose 
through  the  ruder  but  no  less  effective  means  of  robbery, 
debauch  and  blood.  And  behind  those  commonwealths; 
behind  official  hypocrisy  and  governmental  or  individual 
wrong  there  could  be  heard  the  majority  whisper  of  popu- 
lar consent.  An  epoch  is  the  picture  of  its  people's  moral- 
ity. The  stream  of  human  events  is  a  canal  dug  by 
human  desire.  The  directness  of  its  course  and  swift- 
ness of  its  building  is  the  measure  of  human  agree- 
ment 

Without  substantial  accord  of  the  Caucasian  popula- 
tion the  phase  of  the  country's  history  here  outlined  could 
not  have  been  written  as  it  was.  The  most  effective  con- 

619 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

spiracy  is  that  which  is  without  organized  form.  Each 
of  its  myriad  members  can  disavow.  Together,  they  ac- 
complish. All  are  responsible  for  what  is  done. 

We  do  not  too  severely  chide  the  boy  for  the  cruelties 
of  unreasoning  youth,  no  matter  how  wrong  he  may  have 
been,  but  when  he  has  come  to  his  full  strength  and 
stature  it  is  for  him  to  look  back  and  speak  the  truth 
in  a  man's  fashion. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

THE  PEOPLE,  SOCIETY  AND  NATURAL  CONDITIONS  OF  THE 
MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  AT  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE 
MODERN  ERA  —  THE  TASK  WHICH  BEFELL  THE  LAST 
PIONEER  GENERATION  OF  AMERICANS  —  ISOLATION 
AND  MENTAL  SELF-SUFFICIENCY  OF  THE  POPULATION 
—ITS  CAUSES  AND  CONSEQUENCES  —  PECULIAR 
GOVERNMENTAL  CONDITIONS  AND  STRANGE  LAWS  — 
RULE  BY  AN  OLIGARCHY  —  REGULATION  OF  TAVERNS, 
ROADS,  FERRIES  AND  NAVIGATION  —  END  OF  THE 
RIVER  PIRATES  —  OVERLAND  TRAVEL  ROUTES  OF  THE 
EXISTING  FRONTIER 

ONE  of  the  subjects  discussed  by  the  convention  which 
framed  the  Federal  Constitution  was  the  political 
and  economic  future  of  the  region  west  of  the  Alleghany 
Mountains.  It  was  proposed,  among  other  things,  that  the 
country  between  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Mississippi 
River  be  kept  subsidiary  to  the  eastern  states  in  order  that 
the  backwoodsmen  might  not  obtain  too  much  influence; 
that  the  future  population  of  the  interior  be  in  some  way 
controlled  and  restrained  by  the  East,  so  that  when — if 
ever — the  Mississippi  valley  came  to  contain  more  people 
than  the  Atlantic  coast  states  the  rule  of  the  wiser, 
wealthier  and  longer-established  minority  of  the  East 
might  still  prevail  in  giving  shape  to  the  destinies  of  the 
country. 

In  tracing  the  course  of  past  events  we  have  thus  far 

621 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

observed  the  life,  methods  and  habits  of  mind  of  the 
eastern  cabin  dwellers  as  they  conquered  the  wilderness 
and  penetrated  it  by  their  caravans,  pack-trains  and 
cumbersome  wagons ;  we  have  followed  the  men  who 
toiled  on  the  rivers  in  their  keel-boats,  flatboats,  barges 
and  batteaux;  we  have  watched  the  building  of  the  first 
crude  highways  and  the  appearance  of  the  periodic  stage- 
coach; we  have  beheld  the  creation  and  later  adoption  of 
the  steamboat,  and  we  have  witnessed  the  eviction  of  the 
red  men  from  their  eastern  possessions.  The  part  played 
in  some  of  these  developments  by  the  men  of  the  Missis- 
sippi valley  was  a  large  one,  and  it  is  apparent  they  could 
never  have  been  kept  in  subjection  to  the  East  even  if  a 
constitutional  plan  for  that  purpose  had  been  adopted. 
They  would  probably  have  fought  the  East  for  their  own 
independence  even  more  quickly  than  the  original  thirteen 
colonies  resorted  to  arms  against  Britain  for  a  like  purpose. 
The  united  strength  of  both  East  and  interior  was  neces- 
sary for  the  task  of  continental  conquest  by  means  of  traffic 
routes.  After  the  direction  of  human  movement  shifted 
from  its  north-and-south  groove  to  the  westward  trend  it 
was  the  men  of  the  trans-Alleghany  country,  indeed,  who 
thenceforth  exercised  a  controlling  influence  on  the  com- 
plex course  of  events  under  review. 

The  East  had  created  the  first  highways  and  estab- 
lished periodic  travel  on  them  while  yet  the  general  move- 
ments of  population  ran  north  and  south  along  the  Atlantic 
coast,  but  it  was  the  backwoods  pioneers  of  the  Carolinas 
and  Virginia  who  altered  the  direction  of  those  roads  and 
extended  them  far  into  the  wilderness.  It  was  the  back- 
woodsmen who  adopted  the  timber  boats  of  the  East  to 
the  interior  rivers  and  on  them  floated  into  distant  and 
little  known  regions.  While  business  men,  legislatures 

622 


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A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

and  courts  of  the  East  were  seeking  to  restrict  the  use  of 
steam  and  to  convert  steam-propeiled  vehicles  into  a 
licensed  and  country-wide  monopoly  it  was  men  of  the 
interior  who  first  fought  that  purpose.  And  it  was  in 
the  great  central  valley,  and  in  the  middle  South,  that 
the  last  scenes  of  the  contest  against  independent  Indian 
commonwealths  were  enacted. 

The  adoption  and  use  of  steam  as  a  means  of  trans- 
portation on  the  rivers  and  the  final  struggle  with  the 
natives  for  possession  of  the  land  east  of  the  Mississippi 
were  two  features  of  the  story  which  moved  side  by  side. 
Particularly  was  this  true  with  relation  to  the  years  be- 
tween 1810  and  1840.  But  those  years  contained  other 
events  calculated  to  make  them  even  more  important  in 
the  tale  of  national  growth.  They  also  witnessed  the 
culminating  point  in  the  importance  of  stage-coach  travel, 
the  widespread  but  ill-timed  resort  to  canals  as  arteries 
of  commerce,  and  the  sudden  appearance  of  the  railroad. 
The  introduction  of  so  many  new  factors  into  the  ordinary 
life  of  the  people  within  one  generation  produced  an 
orgy  of  kaleidoscopic  activity,  a  whirl  of  picturesque  and 
confusing  conditions,  and  a  considerable  alteration  in  the 
character  and  viewpoint  of  the  people  as  a  whole.  It  is, 
of  course,  true  that  the  mental  qualities  of  the  population 
had  been  gradually  altering  with  the  slow  passage  of 
those  blending  and  overlapping  periods  thus  far  discussed, 
but  the  change  which  came  about  during  the  era  now 
mentioned  was  decidedly  more  sudden  and  radical. 
Within  less  than  one  short  lifetime  the  people  of  the  in- 
terior beheld  a  revolution  in  their  surroundings,  methods 
and  material  affairs  that  doubtless  equalled — and  perhaps 
surpassed  in  the  extremes  of  contrast  and  visions  of  the 
future  presented  by  it — any  similar  experience  that  has 

624 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

affected  mankind  in  an  equal  interval.  All  those  changes 
were  due  to  their  new  devices  for  moving  over  the  face  of 
the  country,  and  to  the  increased  facility  with  which 
they  met  and  communicated  with  one  another. 

The  young  men  who  penetrated  to  the  interior  on  foot 
or  by  pack-train  at  the  rate  of  ten  or  twenty  miles  a  day 
were  soon  travelling  in  stage-coaches  at  a  spsed  of  seventy- 
five  or  a  hundred  miles  a  day.  Families  who  floated 
down  the  rivers  in  flatboats,  consuming  weeks  in  their 
journeys,  could  in  a  few  years  embark  on  steamboats  and 
be  carried  from  Cincinnati  to  New  Orleans  in  a  week. 
Pioneers  who  once  staggered  through  swamps  to  fight 
the  Indians  found  themselves  assembling,  not  long  after- 
ward, to  discuss  the  building  of  a  local  railroad.  Those 
incongruous  conditions  and  situations,  furthermore,  often 
existed  at  the  same  time.  The  ark  and  steamboat  lay  side 
by  side  along  the  river  banks;  the  east-bound  stages  still 
passed  the  west-bound  pack-trains  and  Conestoga  wagons; 
the  last  Indian  fighting  and  the  first  railroad  planning 
went  on  together.  In  his  physical  progress  from  place  to 
place  the  average  man  of  the  period  frequently  started 
his  journey  on  horseback,  then  resorted  in  turn  to  a  steam- 
boat, to  a  stage-coach  and  to  a  canal  packet,  and  finally 
finished  his  travels  on  a  little  railway  at  fifteen  miles  an 
hour.  His  mental  processes  were  no  less  interesting.  It 
was  an  era  of  readjustment  in  thought  as  well  as  in 
material  surroundings;  an  epoch  in  which  the  old  and 
the  new  ideas  for  a  time  waged  warfare.  There  were 
some — as  always — who  could  not  see  what  was  happening. 
Conservatism  and  progress  were  again  at  grips  in  their 
immemorial  contest,  but  this  time  the  issue  was  more 
clear  cut  than  usual  and  the  result  of  the  battle  did  not 
long  remain  in  doubt. 

625 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

One  human  characteristic  that  speedily  developed  as 
a  consequence  of  the  new  conditions  in  which  the  people 
found  themselves  during  the  years  in  question  was  an  ex- 
treme spirit  of  self-sufficiency  and  self-importance,  mani- 
fested to  a  degree  never  before  nor  since  approached  by 
them.  That  this  was  true  is  not  a  cause  for  wonder,  nor 


186. — When  a  canal  passenger  failed  to  reach  the  starting  place  of  a  packet 
before  its  departure  he  was  in  no  concern.  He  walked  to  the  nearest 
bridge  spanning  the  canal,  waited  the  approach  of  the  boat,  and  then 
leaped  to  its  roof,  some  three  or  four  feet  below,  as  it  passed  under  the 
bridge. 

is  it  remarkable  that  the  generation  so  affected  should  it- 
self have  denied  the  accusation.  The  white  Americans 
were  then  somewhat  in  the  position — with  regard  to  the 
rest  of  the  world — of  a  child  of  eight  or  ten  without  play- 
mates, who,  because  of  isolation,  is  growing  into  a  savage 
boyhood  possessed  of  the  unfortunate  and  peculiar  type 
of  imagined  wisdom  which  can  only  be  attained  through 

626 


A  HISTORY  OF  TB  AVEL  IN  AMERICA 

absence  of  association  with  others  of  its  kind.  They  had 
no  convenient  standards  for  constant  comparison  and  self- 
estimate;  no  near-by  companions  whom  they  might  daily 
contemplate,  and  with  whom  they  might  mingle,  play, 
and  argue  on  occasion.  They  could  only  watch  them- 
selves and  soliloquize.  The  life  of  a  people  is  measured 
in  millenniums,  not  in  years,  and  this  people  was  hardly 
out  of  its  swaddling  clothes.  There  is  no  cause  for  sur- 
prise that  the  infant  nation  was  narrow-minded  and  self- 
centered,  and  that  it  gazed  about  with  distorted  vision, 
incapable  for  a  time  of  seeing  its  relation  to  other  and 
supposedly  trivial  details  of  the  planet.  It  had  begun  to 
catch  fantastic  glimpses  of  its  own  destiny;  it  beheld  the 
mirage  of  the  Future. 

In  short,  the  situation  was  simply  this:  The  white 
Americans — and  especially  those  of  pioneer  location, 
spirit  and  action — having  finally  awakened  to  a  realiza- 
tion that  they  had  already  accomplished  numerous  im- 
possible things,  and  that  they  were  in  process  of  doing 
others  of  the  same  sort,  were  blinded  to  the  still,  existing 
crudities  and  ignorance  of  their  own  generation,  and 
unconsciously  assumed  an  attitude  that  discounted  the 
unknown  wonders  which  they  knew  were  coming.  In 
addition  to  the  deeds  of  their  own  age  they  cloaked  them- 
selves in  the  greatness  of  their  children,  and  believed 
themselves  already  the  elect  of  the  earth  in  all  particu- 
lars. This  state  of  mind  was  necessarily  most  manifest 
in  the  interior,  where  knowledge  of  other  peoples  and 
civilizations  was  vague  and  almost  negligible  in  its  effect, 
and  relations  even  with  the  older  eastern  communities 
were  limited  by  the  difficulty  of  communication  with 
them. 

Thus  there  arose  an  interesting  state  of  affairs  possible 

627 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

only  among  a  people  so  isolated,  with  such  a  record  of  past 
endeavor,  and  in  such  a  period  of  transition  from  old 
things  to  new.  A  generation  exceedingly  rough  of  man- 
ners and  speech,  familiar  with  hardships,  living  for  the 
most  part  amid  conditions  immeasurably  removed  from 
those  obtaining  in  older  countries  and  with  scant  time  for 
book  knowledge  or  self-culture,  had  in  one  sense 
adopted  an  inner  life  which  far  outstripped  its  outward 
surroundings.  Moreover  that  inward  life  and  its  at- 
tendant pride — based  on  the  anticipation  of  excellencies 
dreamed  but  not  attained — was  apparently  more  real  to 
its  possessors  and  often  more  powerful  in  shaping  their 
common  acts  and  decisions  than  the  hard  material  situa- 
tion daily  confronting  them.1 

So  deeply  did  this  attitude  take  root  among  the 
population,  and  especially  among  the  western  pioneers  in 
the  years  soon  after  1800,  that  widespread  irritation- 
even  anger — arose  when  foreign  visitors,  after  journeys  of 
investigation,  wrote  books  about  America  in  which  more 
attention  was  given  to  frankly  adverse  criticism  of  the 
manners  of  the  inhabitants  and  rawness  of  the  country  than 
to  its  unrealized  destiny.2 

Those  Americans  of  the  first  four  decades  after  1800 
—touchy,  enthusiastic,  rough,  crude,  practical,  and  yet 

1  The  entrance   of  those  qualities   into   the   life   of  the  people — the   increased  tendency 
to   anticipate   the    future — was   in    a   certain    way    illustrated   by   the   contrasting   receptions 
given   by  the   public  to  the  steamboats  of   Fitch  and   Fulton.     The  public   many   times  saw 
Fitch's  boat  propelled  at  five  miles  an  hour  and  was  unable  to  grasp  the  future  significance 
of  the  event.     But  the  first  time  it  beheld   Fulton's  boat  do  the  same  th'ng,  about  twenty 
years  later,  there  was  an   immediate  and  general  popular  recognition  of  what  it  portended. 

2  Two   such   descriptions   arousing  the   special    ire   of   the   American   public   were   those 
of  Captain  Basil  Hall,  of  the  British   Xavy,  and  of  Mrs.   Trollope,  the  mother  of  Anthony 
Trollope.      Mrs.    Trollope  s   book  really   created   a   national   furore.      It   was   entitled    "The 
Domestic   Manners   of  the   Americans."     The   three   descriptions   of  America   already   men- 
tioned in  Chapter  xviii — those  of  Cuming,   Schultz  and   Michaux — avoided   detailed   discus- 
sions   of    the    rough    personal    appearance,    demeanor    and    habits    that    were    intermingled 
with    the    numerous    finer    qualities    of    the    western    inhabitants,    and,    though    honest    in 
speaking  of  the  difficulties  of  life  in  a  new  land,  were  therefore  better  liked.     The  Ameri- 
cans  of  the   eastern   cities,   while    appreciating  the   truth   of   some   adverse    published   com- 
ment  regarding  the  people   of   the  interior,   were  nevertheless   also   angered   by   it   because 
of   their    realization    that   crude   conditions   were    for   a   time   inevitable,    and    contained    in 
themselves   no   valid   indictment   against   the   country. 

628 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

swept  on  by  dreams — were  the  ones  who  created  modern 
conditions  by  building  the  National  Road,  the  canals  and 
the  railroads.  And  it  was  to  be  their  sons  who  in  turn 
were  to  overwhelm  the  western  half  of  the  continent  in 
one  tremendous  human  surge  and  finally  unite  it  to  the 
east  by  bands  of  steel.  It  is  due  to  them,  therefore,  that 


187. — Packets  rounding  a  curve  on  the  Erie  Canal.  The  big  ditch  followed 
the  valleys  of  natural  streams,  and  was  also  parallelled,  in  some  localities, 
by  country  roads.  Any  individual  or  company  choosing  to  do  so  could 
operate  boats  on  payment  of  prescribed  tolls,  and  scores  of  the  craft  were 
met  or  overtaken  in  the  course  of  a  day. 

before  proceeding  to  the  final  events  of  the  story  in  which 
they  played  so  large  a  part  that  we  take  a  little  glimpse  at 
the  actual  men  whose  constructive  work  is  about  to  con- 
cern us.  We  shall  perhaps  have  a  better  understanding  for 
the  things  they  did  if  we  first  get  a  little  closer  to  their 
character  and  personality.  And  to  accomplish  this  pur- 
pose it  is  not  necessary  for  us  to  linger  in  the  older  cities. 
They  also  had  their  necessary  share  in  the  approaching 
tasks,  but  cities  in  a  new  and  growing  country  rarely 

629 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

originate  the  deeper  purposes  of  its  people  or  control  their 
larger  undertakings.  The  cities  of  a  new  land,  rather, 
are  mirrors  reflecting  those  policies  and  instruments 
whereby  certain  details  of  the  work  are  done.  So  it  was 
in  America.  The  impulse  which  put  its  stamp  most  in- 
delibly on  our  history  between  1800  and  1840  was  the 
determination  of  the  interior  valley  to  bring  itself  into 
closer  touch  with  the  East  by  means  of  new  communica- 
tion facilities.  The  East  likewise  recognized  the  impor- 
tance of  such  an  undertaking,  but  was  more  self-contained 
and  so  had  less  requirement  for  the  impending  change. 
It  looked  at  the  subject  from  a  more  narrow  and  mercan- 
tile standpoint.  But  to  the  region  beyond  the  Alleghanies 
the  need  was  indeed  vital  in  every  respect.  There  could 
be  no  extensive  growth,  no  broad  progress,  no  economic 
and  social  unity  of  the  two  sections,  without  it. 

Whatever  method  of  movement  was  from  time  to  time 
under  discussion  during  that  generation — whether  it  was 
a  national  turnpike,  canals  or  railroads — the  building 
impulse  itself  and  the  most  insistent  cry  came  from  the 
West.  The  first  great  governmental  work  in  response  to 
the  need  and  in  aid  of  better  communications  was  a  turn- 
pike to  the  West.  The  first  great  canals  were  planned  to 
reach  the  West.  The  first  real  railroads  ran  toward  the 
West.  In  each  case  the  actual  process  of  building  began 
in  the  East,  but  the  cities  of  the  older  regions  were  only 
complying  with  an  irresistible  demand  that  came  to  them 
from  across  the  mountains.  So  if  we  would  enter  into  the 
actual  spirit  of  those  times,  and  behold  the  men  really 
responsible  for  what  was  about  to  happen  we  must  throw 
aside  the  retrospective  attitude,  leave  the  older  com- 
munities, their  colleges,  busy  streets,  pretentious  hotels 
and  settled  habits  of  civilization,  and  live  once  more  amid 

630 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

the  human  figures  who  were  out  on  the  firing  line  of  deeds 
and  action.1 

Some  aspects  of  the  social  conditions  prevailing  in  the 
Ohio  valley  at  about  the  commencement  of  the  nineteenth 
century  have  already  been  indicated  in  General  Harrison's 
report  of  1801.  But  that  document  dealt  with  matters 
connected  with  the  race  quarrel,  and  therefore  failed  to 
reveal  innumerable  other  circumstances  of  life  and  human 
Qualities  which  plead  for  attention  in  any  consideration 
of  the  period  and  region  involved. 

At  the  time  General  Harrison  prepared  the  document 
mentioned,  and  for  a  considerable  interval  both  before 
and  afterward,  he  and  a  few  other  men  officially  as- 
sociated with  him  in  the  government  of  the  Northwest 
Territory  actually  possessed,  and  sometimes  exercised, 
an  almost  autocratic  power.  When  the  region  now  em- 
braced in  the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan 
and  Wisconsin  was  given  a  political  organization  it  was 
so  remote  and  inaccessible  from  the  Federal  government 
—as  regards  possibility  of  frequent  communication — that 
the  creation  and  enforcement  of  laws  in  the  Territory  was 
a  matter  of  which  the  national  administration  knew  little 
or  nothing.  It  was  inevitable  that  conditions  of  life  in 
the  vast  and  distant  country  north  of  the  Ohio  would 
produce  situations  requiring  action  by  men  having 
personal  knowledge  of  them.  Out  of  these  things  grew 
a  state  of  affairs  which — as  far  as  civil  government  is 
concerned — was  probably  one  of  the  most  unusual  that  has 
ever  developed  in  a  land  whose  society  was  supposedly 
controlled  by  regulations  having  their  source  in  popular 

1  Since  the  descriptions  and  comments  of  many  foreign  visitors  during  that  period 
were  then  insistently  denied,  and  are  still  the  subjects  of  controversy,  no  informat'on 
gained  from  such  sources  is  used  in  this  and  the  following  chapter  for  purposes  of  pictur- 
ing Americans  and  pioneer  American  conditions  of  the  time.  All  material  of  the  sort 
here  used  is  derived  from  American  writers,  from  official  publications,  original  manuscripts 
of  Americans  and  files  of  contemporary  native  newspapers. 

631 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


188. — The  passengers,  unless  they  were  experienced  voyagers  familiar  with 
the  operation,  always  gathered  on  the  roof  of  the  packet  to  observe  the 
process  of  lifting  or  lowering  it  to  another  level  by  means  of  the  locks. 

rule.  For  some  eleven  years  the  Northwest  Territory  did 
not  possess  a  legislature,  and  the  whole  body  of  its  local 
law  had  its  origin  in  the  pronouncements  of  three  or  four 
men  whose  arbitrary  decrees  could  not,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  be  closely  watched  by  the  general  government. 
The  Federal  authorities  sent  out  individuals  to  act  as 
governor  and  judges,  and  with  that  procedure  their  active 
participation  in  the  affairs  of  the  interior  ceased.  The 
result  was  an  oligarchy.  The  little  group  of  men  out  in 
the  northern  forest  not  only  decreed  the  laws,  but  in- 
terpreted them  and  enforced  them.  They  embodied  all 
the  functions  of  legislative,  judicial  and  executive 
authority.  Two  circumstances  gave  a  reasonable  measure 
of  success  to  this  unrepublican  form  of  government. 
Those  in  whose  hands  lay  the  despotic  power  exercised  it 

632 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

in  the  main  with  good  judgment — according  to  the  light 
of  their  surroundings.  The  Caucasian  population  whose 
lives,  liberty  and  property  were  under  the  control  of  the 
oligarchy  recognized  its  necessity,  and  by  their  actions 
toward  one  another — even  if  not  toward  the  native  peoples 
—made  the  task  of  their  rulers  somewhat  less  difficult  than 
it  easily  might  have  been. 

During  the  fifteen  or  twenty  years  following  1800 
there  was  not  much  change  in  the  relations  between  the 
white  and  red  races  of  the  interior  valley.  Acute  situa- 
tions sometimes  arose,1  but  the  ordinary  status  was  a  strong 
dislike  and  distrust  of  each  race  for  the  other,  manifested 
by  an  interminable  series  of  misunderstandings,  differ- 
ences and  downright  quarrels  for  which  each  side  was  in 
greater  or  less  degree  to  blame.  Those  troubles  were  al- 
ways made  worse  by  the  unfortunate  fact  that  an  over- 
whelming bulk  of  the  Caucasians  despised  the  Indians  and 
would  neither  try  to  comprehend  their  position  nor  culti- 
vate the  Indian  languages  to  a  degree  necessary  for  better 
interchange  of  ideas.  Even  the  necessary  official  inter- 
course between  white  and  red  men,  at  military  posts  and 
elsewhere,  was  often  hampered  by  an  inability  on  the  part 
of  each  group  to  use  the  speech  of  the  other.  This  dif- 
ficulty was  at  times  a  matter  of  record,  and  one  case  of  the 
sort  is  indicated  in  a  letter  written  by  W.  W.  Morrison, 
commanding  officer  at  Turmonds  Station,  in  Indiana  Ter- 
ritory, to  his  superior  at  Fort  Harrison,2  under  date  of 
February  18,  1816.  The  letter  said: 

"Sir  I  hope  you  will  See  the  nesesety  of  a  person  at  this  Station 
who  Can  Speak  the  Ingin  Language  &  I  am  informed  that  you  have  in 
your  Companey  Severell  Frenchmen  that  Can  Speak  ingin  I  hope  you 

1  The  most  important  of  which  was  the  outbreak  led  by  The  Prophet,  connected  with 
Tecumseh's  aspirations  for  a  native  confederacy. 

a '1  he  document  was  addressed  to  Lieutenant  Lasselle,  and  the  original  is  among  the 
Lasselle  Papers  in  the  Indiana  State  Library. 

633 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

will  order  one  of  them  heir  under  my  Command — the  Ingins  has  Cald 
Severell  time  on  mee  I  am  at  a  Loss  for  a  interpetor." 

The  social  conditions — unrelated  to  race  troubles— 
that  prevailed  among  the  English  speaking  people  of 
the  interior  near  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century 
and  the  commencement  of  the  nineteenth  can  be 
well  shown  by  citing  some  of  the  laws  under  which 
they  lived.  The  first  oligarchy  in  charge  of  the  North- 
west Territory  was  composed  of  Governor  Arthur  St. 
Clair,  and  Judges  Samuel  Holden  Parsons,  John  Mitchell 
Varnum  and  John  Cleves  Symmes,  who  assumed  their 
responsibilities  in  the  summer  of  1788.  One  of  its  first 
decrees1  defined  the  punishments  inflicted  on  lawbreakers 
of  various  sorts.  A  man  found  guilty  of  burning  a  house 
was  put  to  death,  as  were  also  traitors  and  murderers.  A 
burglar  was  fined  and  lashed  with  thirty-nine  stripes  on 
the  bare  back  and  could  then  be  imprisoned  for  any  length 
of  time  up  to  forty  years.  A  perjurer,  after  being  fined  in 
an  amount  not  exceeding  sixty  dollars,  might  be  given 
thirty-nine  lashes,  placed  in  a  pillory  for  two  hours  and 
disfranchised.  Larceny  was  punished  by  fine  or  whipping 
at  the  discretion  of  the  court.  If  the  man  found  guilty 
of  larceny  could  not  pay  his  fine,  then  the  decree  em- 
powered the  court  to  sell  the  convicted  man  into  slavery, 
for  a  period  not  exceeding  seven  years,  to  any  citizen  who 
would  pay  the  fine.2  Forgery  was  punishable  by  fine,  dis- 
franchisement  and  committal  to  the  public  pillory.  A 
drunkard  was  punished  by  fine  or  by  being  placed  in  the 
stocks  for  an  hour. 

By  1792  the  oligarchy  governing  the  Territory  con- 
tained only  one  of  its  original  members,  and  then  con- 

1  That  of  September  16,   1788. 

2  The   judges   of   the   court   were   themselves   members   of  the   oligarchy,   and   in    their 
capacity   as   rulers   they    framed   the   law   giving   the   power   here   described   into   their   own 
hands. 

634 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL   IN  AMERICA 


189. — The    poetry  of  travel   by   canal.     Slipping  through   an   Erie   gorge   on   a 

moonlit  summer  night.     Some  of  the  skippers  carried  organs  on  board, 

and  the   passengers   had  concerts  before  turning  in. 

sisted  of  Winthrop  Sargent,1  John  Cleves  Symmes  and 
Rufus  Putnam.  One  of  the  decrees  published  in  that 
year  was  designed  to  supply  an  important  need  of  the 
pioneer  society,  namely,  accommodations  for  travellers.  It 
provided  that: 

"The  commissioner  for  granting  licenses  shall  have  a 
power  of  establishing  public  inns  and  taverns."  He  was 
authorized  to  grant  licenses  "to  such  persons  as  the 
Justices  of  the  General  Quarter  Sessions  of  the  Peace  in 
their  wisdom  may  deem  really  necessary  well  qualified 
in  person  and  character,  well  provided  in  accommodations 
for  guests,  and  well  situate  in  point  of  residence  for  the 
accommodations  of  travellers."  The  tax  on  such  a  license 


1  The  Acting  Governor. 


635 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

was  fixed  at  sixteen  dollars  a  year,  and  the  tavern  keeper 
had  to  "set  up  in  a  proper  manner  on  the  front  and  out- 
side of  his  house  a  board  or  sign  with  his  or  her  name 
written  thereon  and  some  device  expressive  of  his  business 
as  a  tavern  keeper.  ...  on  which  board  or  sign  shall  also 
be  written  in  large  fair  letters  'By  Authority  a  Tavern.' ' 
The  act  also  provided  that  if  the  tavern  keeper  "neglect 
or  refuse  to  do  his  or  her  duty  therein  as  well  in  providing 
good  and  wholesome  food  for  man  and  beast  as  in  keep- 
ing ordinary  liquors  of  a  good  and  salutary  quality  and 
suitable  lodgings  and  attendance  for  guests  in  a  reasonable 
and  proper  manner  according  to  the  common  usage  and 
custom  of  well-kept  taverns  in  an  inland  country,"  the  said 
innkeeper's  license  lapsed  and  he  became  liable  to  the 
traveller  for  any  damages  sustained  through  failure  to 
provide  the  liquor,  lodgings  or  food  aforesaid.1  By  later 
decree  on  the  same  subject,  dated  June  17,  1795,  the 
penalty  imposed  on  a  tavern  keeper  for  failure  to  provide 
for  a  guest  was  reduced  to  five  dollars.  The  number  of 
inns  was  curtailed,  and  no  one  could  conduct  such  an 
establishment  unless  recommended  by  a  judge  on  pain  of  a 
fine  of  one  dollar  a  day.  The  pronouncement  of  1795  also 
provided  that  an  innkeeper  could  not  get  his  license  in 
the  first  place  until  he  had  given  a  bond  of  three  hundred 
dollars  for  his  good  behavior.2 

Nearly  all  the  laws  promulgated  during  succeeding 
years  related  to  such  matters  as  taxation,  legal  processes, 
court  procedure,  and  offenses  against  public  order.  A 
curious  decree  of  the  last  named  sort,  issued  in  May  of 
1798,3  possesses  unusual  importance  because  of  its  revela- 

1  "Laws  passed  in  the  Territory  of  the  United  States  North-West  of  the  River  Ohio, 
from  July  to  December,  1792.     Published  by  Authority.     Philadelphia:   MDCCXCIV." 

2  "Laws    of   the    Territory    of   the    United    States    North-West    of   the    Ohio,    Etc.      By 
Authority.     Cincinnati:   MDCCXCVI." 

J  The    oligarchy    then    consisted    of    Winthrop    Sargent,    John    Cleves    Symmes,    Joseph 
Gilman  and  Return  Jonathan  Meigs,  Jr. 

636 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

tion  regarding  a  certain  savage  custom  of  those  days.    It 
read  thus: 

"Whosoever  .  .  .  shall  voluntarily,  maliciously,  and  of  pur- 
pose, pull  or  put  out  an  eye  while  fighting  or  otherwise,  every  such 
offender,  his  or  her  aiders,  abettors,  and  counselors,  shall  be  sentenced 
to  undergo  a  confinement  in  the  jail  of  the  county  in  which  the  offense 
is  committed,  for  any  time  not  less  than  one  month  nor  more  than  six 
months,  and  shall  also  pay  a  fine  not  less  than  fifty  dollars  and  not  ex- 
ceeding one  thousand  dollars — one-fourth  of  which  shall  be  to  the  use 
of  the  territory,  and  three-fourths  thereof  to  the  use  of  the  party 
grieved  ;  and  for  want  of  the  means  of  payment,  the  offender  shall  be 
sold  to  service  by  the  court  before  which  he  is  convicted  for  any  time 
not  exceeding  five  years,  the  purchaser  finding  him  food  and  raiment 
during  the  term."  And  the  decree  concluded:  "The  foregoing  is  hereby 
declared  to  be  a  law  of  the  Territory."1 

This  phraseology  relates  to  the  strange  early  frontier 
practise  of  gouging  out  a  human  eye  with  the  thumb. 
Contemporary  literature  relating  to  conditions  in  America 
about  the  year  1800  contains  few  references  to  the  barbar- 
ism in  question,  and  those  mentions  of  it  have  often  been 
challenged.2  According  to  tradition  the  practise  was  not 
altogether  an  uncommon  one,  and  its  employment  in  a 
fight  was  usually  contingent  upon  a  mutual  agreement 
or  understanding  of  the  participants.  When  two  men 
engaged  in  combat,  and  it  was  agreed  that  the  mutilation 
was  permissible,  it  became  the  purpose  of  each  man  to 
pin  his  adversary  flat  on  his  back.  Then  the  success- 
ful fighter  would  insert  the  end  of  his  thumb  in  an  eye 
socket  of  his  opponent  and  deliberately  gouge  out  the  eye- 
ball. It  was  then  the  privilege  of  the  prostrate  man  to 

1  "Laws   of   the   Territory   of   the    United   States   North-West   of   the   River   Ohio,   etc., 
etc.     By  Authority.    Cincinnati.     Printed  and  Sold  by  Edmund  Freeman:    MDCCXCVIII." 

2  Probably   the   most   widely   known   contemporary    reference   of   the   sort   is   that   made 
by  the   English  traveler,   Charles   William  Janson,  and   contained   in   his   "The   Stranger   in 
America."     London:   1807.     Similar  comments,  whether  made  by  native  writers  or  foreign 
visitors,    were   almost    always   based    upon    hearsay,   and    some   later   commentators   on   the 
period    have    expressed    the    opinion    that    contemporary    writers    who    mentioned    gouging 
from    hearsay   had   been   deceived   by   American    frontiersmen   who   "pulled   the   long   bow." 
But   Janson   says   he   was   the   spectator   of   an   encounter    between   two    men    in    which    the 
deed  in  question  was  committed,  and  since  he  is  possibly  the  only  contemporary  chronicler 
who  makes  such  an  assertion  the  dispute  has  been  largely  centered  upon  his  statement. 

637 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

indicate,  if  he  chose,  that  he  was  defeated,  and  by  such 
admission  he  saved  his  other  eye. 

The  act  of  the  rulers  of  the  Northwest  Territory  in 
1798,  in  framing  the  law  above  quoted,  seems  to  be  con- 
clusive concerning  the  existence  of  such  a  practise  as 


.  GOING   TO   BED, 


190. — Going  to  bed  on  an  Erie  packet.  Three  tiers  of  bunks  were  erected  along, 
each  side  of  the  main  cabin  after  supper,  and  the  passengers  were  usually 
permitted  to  select  their  berths  according  to  the  order  of  their  arrival  on 
board.  The  women's  cabin  was  similarly  arranged.  If  the  number  of  men 
travellers  exceeded  the  number  of  beds,  then  the  late  arrivals  slept  on  the 
floor  or  the  supper  tables.  The  captain  is  calling  the  roll  and  alloting  the 
bunks. 

pulling  out  an  eye.  It  also  shows  the  extreme  nature  of 
the  powers  at  times  assumed  by  the  oligarchy,  for  it 
provided  that  a  man  found  guilty  of  the  mutilation  de- 
scribed might  be  sold  into  slavery  unless  he  could  pay  the 
damages  assessed  against  him.  On  this  point  the  decree 
was  not  optional,  but  mandatory.  It  provided  that  the 
man  "shall  be  sold  to  service."  The  law  probably  marked 
the  last  occasion  whereon,  in  the  United  States,  a  white 

638 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

man  might  be  reduced  to  the  status  of  a  slave  by  govern- 
mental process. 

Another  beam  of  light — though  of  a  very  different  sort 
—is  cast  on  the  territorial  affairs  of  the  Northwest  through 
a  letter  written  by  General  Arthur  St.  Clair  in  1796,  in 
which  he  cautions  a  government  surveyor  about  the 
devices  often  used  by  settlers  in  obtaining  title  to  undue 
amounts  of  land.  The  communication1  was  addressed  to 
Colonel  Robert  Buntin,  who  had  been  appointed  a  sur- 
veyor by  St.  Clair  in  October  of  1795  and  who,  at  the 
time  of  the  incident  here  told,  was  in  Vincennes.  The 
epistle  was  dated  "Cincinnati,  September  19,  1796,"  and 
read  in  part: 

"Be  pleased  to  observe  it  [the  work  done  by  settlers  to  obtain  home- 
steads] must  be  actual  improvement,  not  the  marking  or  deadening  a 
few  Trees  or  throwing  a  few  loggs  together  in  form  of  a  Cabbin,  which 
are  very  commonly  called  improvements,  in  which  way  two  or  three 
Persons  in  one  single  week  could  cover  a  large  tract  of  country." 

But  it  was  the  brief  postscript  to  this  letter  which  after 
all  gave  to  it  its  largest  historical  value.  St.  Clair  said  in 
his  postscript  to  Buntin: 

"I  am  not  certain  whether  it  was  you  or  not  that  was  appointed 
Treasurer.  If  it  was  not  you  let  me  know  who  it  was,  for  it  seems  I 
neglected  to  remember  it." 

At  this  late  day  we  can  only  hope  that  Governor  St. 
Clair  discovered  the  identity  of  his  treasurer,  and  that  his 
mnemonic  system  of  governmental  records  proved  more 
efficient  on  other  similar  occasions. 

By  order  of  St.  Clair  the  first  popular  elections  in  the 
Territory  took  place  in  December  of  1798,  and  the  legis- 
lature— which  consisted  of  a  lower  house  of  nineteen 
elected  members  and  an  upper  house  of  five  members2- 

*  An  unpublished  letter  among  the  Lasselle  Papers  in  the  Tnd'ana  State  Library. 

-  Called   the   Legislative   Council.      Its  members  were  appointed  by  the   President  from 
a  list  of  ten  names  submitted  by  the  lower  house. 

639 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

was  finally  organized  in  the  autumn  of  1799.  Among  the 
earliest  laws  passed  by  the  assembly  were  three  acts  re- 
lating to  the  travel  facilities  of  the  region.  The  first  of 
these  was  "an  act  to  establish  and  regulate  ferries."  It 
provided  that  any  citizen  might  establish  a  ferry  after  giv- 
ing three  months'  public  notice  of  his  intention  and  secur- 
ing a  special  act  of  authorization.  The  courts  were  em- 
powered "to  fix,  from  time  to  time,  the  rates  which  the 
ferry  keeper  shall  hereafter  demand  for  the  transportation 
of  passengers,  wagons,  carriages,  horses,  etc."  A  ferry 
owner  was  required  to  keep  proper  boats  in  operation 
during  the  daytime,  and  also  at  night  unless  night  naviga- 
tion was  dangerous.  For  his  services  during  the  hours  of 
darkness  he  was  permitted  to  collect  a  double  price,  but  if 
he  overcharged  at  any  time  he  was  compelled  to  refund 
the  ferriage  and  pay  to  the  traveller  two  dollars  in  addi- 
tion, as  a  penalty.  This  law  made  it  an  offense  for  any  one 
but  a  public  ferryman  to  transport  "any  person  over  any 
river  or  creek"  within  five  miles  of  a  public  ferry,  on 
penalty  of  a  fine  not  exceeding  twenty  dollars.1 

The  second  of  the  three  laws  mentioned  dealt  with 
conveyances  commonly  used  in  water  travel  and  trans- 
portation. It  provided  that  any  one  who  found  a  "boat, 
flat,  periague,  canoe,  or  other  small  vessel"  must  give  the 
authorities  an  exact  description  of  it,  which  description 
was  then  officially  posted  on  the  court-house  door.  If  the 
craft  was  claimed  by  its  owner  the  finder  was  entitled  to 
a  reward  of  from  fifty  cents  to  a  dollar,  in  accordance  with 
the  size  and  value  of  the  boat.  If  it  was  not  claimed 
within  a  year  and  was  not  worth  more  than  five  dollars, 

1  "Laws  of  the  Territory  of  the  United  States,  North- West  of  the  River  Ohio.  Passed 
at  the  First  Session  of  the  General  Assembly  .  .  .at  Cincinnati  .  .  .  1799; 
Also,  Certain  laws  enacted  by  the  Governor  and  Judges  of  the  Territory  from  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Government  to  1792.  Etc.,  etc.  Published  by  Authority.  Cincinnati: 
MDCCC."  The  date  of  the  act  was  November  15,  1799. 

640 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

the  boat  belonged  to  the  finder.  If  a  craft  worth  more 
than  five  dollars  remained  unclaimed  for  a  year  it  re- 
verted to  the  Territory  as  public  property.1 

The  third  law  provided  for  the  construction  of  wagon 
roads  on  petition  of  the  public,  in  case  the  requested  roads 


191. — View  of  a  passenger  boat  going  through  the  deep  cut  near  Lockport,  shown 

in   illustration   No.   181.     The   animals   and   their  driver  walked  on  a 

narrow  shelf  high  up  on  the  wall  of  masonry  at  the  right. 

were  found  to  be  desirable.  The  width  of  such  thorough- 
fares was  sixty-six  feet.2  The  law  also  provided  for  a 
tax  whose  proceeds  should  be  used  in  road  building, 
ordered  that  male  citizens  contribute  two  days'  labor  dur- 
ing each  year  to  such  public  work,  and  further  directed 
that  no  citizen,  while  so  working,  might  ask  a  traveller  for 
either  money  or  drink,  on  pain  of  a  fine  of  one  dollar. 

Although  the  year  1799  witnessed  the  end  of  oligarchi- 
cal government  in  the  region  now  embraced  by  Ohio,  the 

1  Ibid.     Act  of  December  2,  1799. 

2  "Cart  paths"  33  feet  wide  were  also  authorized. 

641 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

same  thing  was  not  true  in  relation  to  the  other  parts  of 
the  Northwest  Territory,  of  which  the  country  now  in- 
cluded in  Illinois  and  Indiana  was  the  only  portion  con- 
taining enough  Caucasian  population  to  justify  attention.1 
"The  Indiana  Territory"  was  erected  into  a  separate 
governmental  jurisdiction  in  1800,2  and  the  oligarchy 
system  was  at  once  re-established  there.  The  first  three 
rulers  were  William  Henry  Harrison,3  William  Clarke 
and  Henry  VanderBurgh.4  They  met  for  the  first  time 
at  Vincennes  in  January,  1801,  and  ordained  ten  laws,  all 
but  one  of  which  related  to  methods  of  legal  procedure 
and  kindred  subjects.  The  solitary  act  dealing  with 
public  improvements  gave  to  the  governor  power  to 
create  public  ferries  by  proclamation  or  otherwise.5 

Almost  no  attention  was  given  by  the  Indiana  rulers 
to  the  subject  of  public  improvements  during  the  remain- 
ing four  years  in  which  all  executive,  legislative  and 
judicial  functions  reposed  in  the  hands  of  three  or  four 
men.  During  their  fourth  session,6  however,  steps  were 
taken  to  minimize  the  danger  connected  with  navigating 
the  rapids  of  the  Ohio,  where  many  flatboats  and  other 
craft  had  been  lost  each  year  for  a  long  time.  The 
governor  was  authorized  to  appoint  competent  pilots  who 
should  receive  two  dollars  for  every  boat  taken  past  the 
dangerous  spot.  The  decree  also  provided  that  any  un- 
authorized person  who  acted  as  pilot  at  that  place  should 
be  fined  ten  dollars,  although  the  owner  of  a  boat  was 

1  Early  in  the  summer   of   1800  the  civilized   population   of  the   Indiana  Territory  was 
estimated   at   4,875.     John   B.    Dillon's   "Oddities   of   Colonial   Legislation   in   America,    etc., 
with  Authentic   Records   of  the  Origin   and   Growth   of   Pioneer   Settlements,"  p.   543. 

2  By  Act  of  Congress  approved   May  7.     It  took  effect  on  July   4. 

3  Who   had  been   confirmed  as  Governor  by  the   Federal   Senate  on   May  13,   1800. 

4  Clarke   and    VanderBurgh   were   two   of   the   three   judges    for   the    Territory.      They, 
together  with  John  Griffin,  had  been  appointed  by  President  Adams  and  confirmed  by  the 
Seriate  on  May  14,  but  Griffin  does  not  appear  by  name  with  the  others  in  printed  records 
reciting  the  acts  of  the  territorial  rulers. 

E  "Laws  adopted  by  the  Governor  and  Judges  of  the  Indiana  Territory  at  their  First 
Sessions  held  at  Saint  Yincennes,  lanuary  12,  1801.  Published  by  Authority.  Frank- 
fort, (K.)  1802." 

6  Held  at  Vincennes  from  September  to   November,  in   1803. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

permitted  to  conduct  his  own  craft  through  the  rapids  if 
he  so  desired.  The  only  other  public  improvements  law 
issued  in  1803  provided  for  the  construction  of  bridges 
where  necessary,  although  the  provision  for  the  building 
of  bridges  was  made  in  connection  with,  and  subsidiary 
to,  the  erection  of  "jails,  pillories,  stocks  and  whipping 
posts."1 

One  of  the  miscellaneous  decrees  ordained  by  the  three 
men  who  ruled  Indiana  Territory  in  1803  is  especially 
illustrative  of  the  sharp  line  drawn  by  the  Caucasian 
pioneers  between  themselves  and  all  other  classes  of 
society.  The  triumvirate  during  its  fourth  session  pre- 
pared an  elaborate  code  of  civil  and  criminal  laws  which 
among  other  things  provided  that  "no  negro,  mulatto  or 
Indian  shall  be  a  witness  except  in  the  pleas  of  the  United 
States  against  negroes,  mulattoes  or  Indians,  or  in  civil 
pleas  where  negroes,  mulattoes  or  Indians  alone  shall  be 
parties."2 

General  Harrison  at  the  time  in  question — as  he  had 
been  when  he  wrote  his  report  of  1801 — was  Governor  of 
the  Territory.  He  was  also  the  Indian  Agent  of  the 
Federal  government  in  the  Territory,  and,  as  now  further 
appears,  he  was  also  one  of  three  men  who  proclaimed  all 
the  conditions  under  which  lived  every  individual  of  every 
race  in  the  Territory.  He  interpreted  the  laws  of  which 
he  was  joint  author;  enforced  those  laws  according  to  his 
own  interpretation;  and,  with  his  two  colleagues,  had 
power  over  the  life  and  liberty  of  his  fellow  men.  Thus 
embracing  within  one  personality  an  authority  all  but 

1  The  two  decrees  last  mentioned  are  to  be  found  in  "Laws  Adopted  by  the  Governor 
and  Judges  of  the   Indiana  Territory  at  their   Second  and  Third  Sessions,  begun  and  held 
at    Saint   Vincennes   30th   January,    1802,   &    February   16,    1803.      Published   by   Authority. 
Vincennes,  (I.  T.)   1804."     This  volume  also  contains  the  decrees  resulting  from  the  fourt'i 
session   of   the   oligarchy,   in   whose   membership  Thomas   T.   Davis   had  taken   the  place  of 
William  Clarke. 

2  Paragraph  twenty-first  of  the  first  act  of  the  Session.     Text  contained  in  the  volume 
last  mentioned. 

643 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

unique  in  modern  times — especially  in  a  state  ostensibly 
under  republican  form  of  government — General  Harrison 
promulgated  the  act  here  quoted  and  established,  under 
the  law,  the  racial  cleavage  created  by  it.  By  the  terms  of 
this  decree  no  white  man  might  be  charged  by  an  Indian 
with  any  crime  or  other  wrong  against  native  life,  rights 


192. — Four  days   and   fourteen   hours  out  from  Albany,   westward   bound.     Ap- 
proaching the  series  of  five  locks  at  Lockport,  thirty  miles  from  Buffalo, 
by  which  boats  were  lifted  for  62  feet  to  a  higher  level. 


or  property.  In  such  a  case  Indian  testimony  was  non- 
existent, irrespective  of  the  character  and  reputation  of 
the  native  or  natives  involved.  When  considered  in  con- 
nection with  the  official  positions  held  by  General  Harri- 
son, and  especially  when  considered  in  contrast  to  the 
sentiments  contained  in  the  report  written  two  years  be- 
fore, the  law  of  1803  has  unusual  interest  and  suggests 

644 


- 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

the  existence  of  deep  and  powerful  Caucasian  desire  in 
accordance  with  its  provisions. 

In  setting  up  the  oligarchical  governments  that  ruled 
the  Northwest  Territory  from  1788  to  1799,  and  that 
afterward  administered  the  affairs  of  the  Indiana  Terri- 
tory from  1801  to  1805,  the  Federal  Congress  reserved  to 
itself  the  right  to  disapprove  such  laws  as  were  pro- 
mulgated for  the  control  of  those  distant  regions.  But 
in  the  nature  of  things  there  could  be  little  or  no  inter- 
ference by  the  national  legislature  in  such  pronounce- 
ments as  have  been  cited.  The  legislators  from  the  old 
established  states  of  the  East  could  have  but  vague  knowl- 
edge of  conditions  in  the  remote  West,  and  were  of  neces- 
sity forced  to  leave  the  affairs  of  that  far  country  in  the 
hands  of  the  men  designated  to  administer  them.  It  was 
not  possible  for  the  central  administration  to  keep  in 
touch  with  circumstances  on  the  frontier.  Sometimes  as 
much  as  six  months  elapsed  during  which  no  official  com- 
munications from  Washington  reached  General  Harrison 
at  Vincennes.  The  decrees  of  the  oligarchy  were  put  into 
effect  upon  their  utterance,  or  quickly  thereafter.  They 
could  not  await  the  long  time  necessary  for  their  submis- 
sion to  Washington,  their  consideration  there,  and  the 
return  of  an  approval  or  veto.  If  Congress  had  been  in 
the  habit  of  vetoing  such  laws,  many  months  or  a  year 
after  their  promulgation,  the  Northwest  could  never  at 
any  time  have  known  what  was  lawful  and  what  was  not. 
The  result  would  have  been  a  region  without  any  law. 
And  besides,  Congress  was  not  always  in  session. 

Whatever  sentiment  existed  in  Congress  toward  Gen- 
eral Harrison  and  the  Indiana  Territory  laws  must  have 
been  favorable,  for  in  the  year  18041  all  that  immense  part 

1  By  act  of  March  26. 

646 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

of  the  recently  acquired  territory  of  Louisiana  lying  west 
of  the  Mississippi  River  and  north  of  the  thirty-third 
degree  of  north  latitude1  was  attached  to  Indiana  Ter- 
ritory under  the  name  of  the  "District  of  Louisiana,"  and 
placed  under  the  control  of  General  Harrison  and  his  col- 
leagues.2 During  the  year  in  which  this  arrangement  was 
continued3  Governor  Harrison  and  the  two  or  three  men 
associated  with  him  had  immediate  jurisdiction  and  power 
over  a  region  containing  not  far  from  one  million  square 
miles,  and  all  the  human  beings  who  inhabited  it.  In 
October  of  1804  they  met  at  Vincennes  and  issued  decrees 
for  the  enormous  country  under  their  administration.  But 
in  18054  a  segment  of  Indiana  Territory  was  detached 
from  it  and  erected  into  the  separate  Territory  of  Michi- 
gan, and  the  same  year  witnessed  the  creation  of  the  first 
Indiana  legislative  assembly.  With  the  advent  of  that 
elective  body  ended  a  period  of  seventeen  years  during 
which  time  a  very  large  part  of  the  interior  and  its  people 
had  almost  constantly  remained  subject  to  the  peculiar 
governmental  system  here  described.  With  the  appear- 
ance of  a  popularly  elected  assembly  in  Indiana  Territory 
that  district  entered,  after  the  usual  pioneer  fashion,  upon 
a  course  of  progress  having  to  do  with  better  communica- 
tion facilities  and  convenience  in  using  them. 

Human  overland  movement  in  the  West  was  then  con- 
fined almost  entirely  to  travel  on  horseback,5  and  as  a  con- 
sequence any  offense  against  the  one  means  of  locomotion 
was  punished  with  exceptional  severity.  During  its  first 

The   boundary   line   of   the   modern   state   of   Louisiana. 

2  The   Governor  and  Judges  of  the  territory  were  invested  with  authority  to   exercise 
over   the   District   of   Louisiana   powers   similar   to    those   they   were   authorized   to   exercise 
for  the  maintenance  of  government  in  the  Territory  of  Indiana. 

3  Louisiana    District    was    detached    from    Indiana    Territory    by    act    of    Congress    on 
March  3,   1805.     It  had  been  attached  to   Indiana    March  26  of  1804. 

*  By   act   of  January   11,   taking   effect   on   June   30. 

5  In  which  feature  the  conditions  there  existing  constituted  a  repetition  of  the  era  that 
had  prevailed  a  century  and  a  half  before,  in  the  Atlantic  coast  regions,  only  a  few  hun- 
dred miles  to  the  eastward. 

647 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

session  the  Indiana  assembly  passed  a  law  providing  that 
if  a  person  stole  "any  Horse,  Mare,  Gelding,  Mule  or 
Ass,"  he  should  for  the  first  offense  pay  to  the  owner  the 
value  of  the  animal,  should  be  imprisoned  until  said  value 
and  costs  were  paid,  and  should  receive  from  fifty  to  two 
hundred  lashes  on  the  bare  back.  The  act  provided  that 
for  a  second  offense  the  offender  should  "suffer  the  pains 
of  death." 

During  the  same  session  the  assembly  provided  that  all 
citizens  should  be  compelled  to  work  twelve  days  of  each 
year  in  the  creation  of  public  roads,  and  made  provision 
for  the  introduction  of  taverns.  The  law  stipulated  that 
tavern  licenses  could  only  be  issued  by  courts,  and  the 
courts  were  in  addition  authorized  to  establish  the  rates 
to  be  charged  against  travellers  by  the  tavern  keepers.  If 
an  innkeeper  presumed  to  collect  any  higher  amount  than 
that  fixed  by  the  court,  his  license  was  forfeited  and  he  was 
compelled  to  pay  twenty  dollars  to  the  complainant.1 

The  days  that  had  intervened  between  Boone's 
journey  and  the  close  of  the  century  had  been  marked,  in 
the  interior,  by  a  hurly-burly  of  confusion  and  violence. 
But  at  last  a  systematic  effort  was  on  foot  to  bring  about 
a  more  settled  state  of  affairs.  The  inflowing  horde  of 
whites  no  longer  remained  close  to  the  rivers  and  first 
settlements,  but  scattered  rapidly  over  the  country.  The 
task  of  suppressing  disorder,  which  had  previously  fallen 
in  large  measure  directly  on  the  people  themselves,  was 
more  actively  undertaken  by  state,  territorial  and  local 
authorities.  This  endeavor  was  shown  by  the  nature  of 
certain  laws  here  mentioned.  New  exertions  were  made 
to  increase  the  security  of  travellers  both  by  land  and 

1  The  early  enactments  of  the  First  Indiana  Territorial  Assembly  here  mentioned  are 
contained  in  "Laws  Passed  at  the  First  Session  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Indiana 
Territory,  begun  and  held  at  the  Borough  of  Vincennes,  on  Monday  the  twenty-ninth  of 
July  in  the  year  1805.  By  Authority.  Vincennes:  Printed  by  Elihu  Stout.  (1805.)" 

648 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


194. — Some  of  the  families  whose  men-folk  spent  their  lives  in  canal  work  lived 

in  boats  that  were  furnished  after  the  manner  of  houses.     Even 

the  family  horse  was  kept  on  board. 

water.  The  severity  of  punishment  visited  upon  horse 
thieves  represented  in  part  a  determination  to  insure  safety 
and  speed  in  movement  from  place  to  place. 

Nor  were  the  river  pirates  overlooked.  Although  they 
had  long  been  a  danger  to  travel  on  the  Ohio  and  some  of 
its  tributaries,  no  official  effort  had  as  yet  been  made 
to  destroy  them  and  put  an  end  to  their  operations.  But 
this  matter  of  safety  on  the  Ohio  was  taken  up  by  Ken- 
tucky soon  after  the  opening  of  the  century.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  Cave-in-Rock  was  a  favorite  haunt  of 
the  river  desperados,  and  at  the  time  Kentucky  began  her 
fight  to  exterminate  them  the  most  active  group  of  pirates 
was  believed  to  contain  about  thirty  members.  Kentucky 
went  to  the  extent  of  organizing  a  military  expedition 
against  the  outlaws,  and  the  militia  met  them  in  battle  and 
came  out  of  the  fray  victorious.  A  considerable  number 

649 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

of  the  criminals  were  killed  and  the  remainder  were  dis- 
persed. Organized  attacks  on  flatboats  and  other  river 
craft  never  became  popular  afterward,  and  one  danger  of 
river  travel  disappeared.  But  the  conflict  that  brought 
safety  to  river  voyagers  proved  a  curse  to  some  of  those 
emigrants  who  had  occasion  to  journey  overland  through 
the  South.  The  survivors  of  the  pirate  band,  after  their 
defeat,  united  under  the  leadership  of  three  famous  bandits 
named  Mason,  Corkendale,  and  Harpe,  and  for  several 
years  infested  the  region  of  southern  Tennessee  and  north- 
ern Mississippi,  where  they  killed  and  robbed  travellers 
almost  at  will.  Finally  their  operations  became  an  intoler- 
able  scourge  and  the  governor  of  Mississippi  Territory 
offered  a  reward  of  five  hundred  dollars  for  the  capture 
of  Mason.  The  highwaymen  heard  of  the  offer,  and  two 
of  them  turned  traitors  to  their  chief  and  put  an  end  to 
him.  Then  the  two  fell  into  a  debate  concerning  the  best 
method  of  proving  their  exploit  and  securing  the  promised 
money.  This  problem  they  solved  by  cutting  off  Mason's 
head  and  carrying  it  to  Natchez,  where,  after  a  discussion 
with  the  authorities,  and  conferences  between  the  author- 
ities, the  five  hundred  dollars  was  duly  paid  over  to  them. 
The  two  bandits  were  then  arrested,  tried,  and  executed, 
and  as  no  heirs  appeared  to  claim  their  estate — which  con- 
sisted of  the  aforesaid  five  hundred  dollars — the  money 
duly  reverted  to  the  treasury  of  the  commonwealth.  The 
conferences  of  the  territorial  officials  which  preceded  the 
payment  of  the  reward  may  have  had  some  connection 
with  the  final  outcome  of  the  case. 

The  pioneers  who  penetrated  into  the  Indiana  and  Il- 
linois country  during  the  first  fifteen  or  twenty  years  after 
1800  encountered  natural  conditions  that  were  substan- 
tially identical  with  those  which  had  surrounded  the  New 

650 


T3 

to  t 


M 

n'  O 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

England  pioneers  more  than  a  century  and  a  half  before. 
The  region  north  of  the  Ohio  River,  and  extending  west- 
ward from  the  Ohio  boundary  to  the  Mississippi  River,  was 
girdled  by  long-established  Indian  trails,  and  those  were 
at  first  the  only  routes  used  by  the  newcomers.  In  Indiana 
the  elaborate  system  of  native  paths  seemed  to  converge 
at  two  points,  from  which  they  radiated  somewhat  like 
the  spokes  of  a  wheel.  One  of  these  junction  spots  of 
native  travel  lay  on  the  White  River,  where  it  is  joined  by 
a  small  tributary  now  known  as  Fall  Creek.  To  this  spot 
extended  a  trail  from  Vincennes,  another  from  the  falls 
of  the  Ohio,1  another  from  the  White  Water  River,2  and 
still  others  that  reached  down  from  the  Potawatomi, 
Miami  and  Delaware  towns  in  the  north. 

The  other  nucleus  of  native  trails  was  the  important 
Miami  town  called  Ke-ki-on-ga,  the  present  site  of  Fort 
Wayne.  It  was  Ke-ki-on-ga,  with  its  radiating  system  of 
various  routes,  which  was  described  by  Little  Turtle,  in 
his  address  to  General  Wayne  at  Greenville,  as  "that 
glorious  gate  .  .  .  from  the  North  to  the  South,  and  from 
the  East  to  the  W^est." 

The  first  two  distinctively  Caucasian  overland  roads 
into  the  Indiana  region  were  at  first  known  as  the  "Berry 
Trace"  and  the  "Whetzel  Trace."3  The  Berry  Trace  was 
the  principal  path  of  white  travel  northward  from  the 
Ohio  River  into  the  interior  of  the  territory,  and  for  a 
considerable  part  of  its  distance  it  was  merely  an  improve- 
ment on  the  pre-existing  Indian  trail  extending  northward 
from  the  falls  of  the  Ohio  to  the  White  River.  The 

1  At  present  followed  by  the  tracks  of  a  railway  extending  northward  from  Jefferson- 
ville  to  Indianapolis.  This  trail  was  used  by  the  Potawatomi,  Miamis  and  Delawares 
of  the  upper  Indiana  country  in  their  annual  journeys  to  the  neutral  hunting  grounds  of 
Kentucky. 

z  This  route  is  now  occupied  by  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad. 

3  The  first  named  was  marked  out  by  Captain  John  Berry,  and  the  other  by  Jacob 
Whetzel,  one  of  the  members  of  a  family  that  played  a  prominent  part  in  the  pioneer 
development  and  race  wars  of  the  interior. 

651 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


TKE    LINE-BOAT   CAB1X. 


195. — The   living  quarters   on   a  boat  of  the   sort  shown   in   the   preceding, 
may   be    an    interior   view    of   the   same    room    from 
whose  window  the  woman  is  looking. 


It 


Whetzel  Trace  was  the  principal  line  of  white  travel  into 
the  interior  of  Indiana  from  the  Ohio  region  and  the  East.1 
For  a  part  of  its  extent  it  was  really  created  by  white  men. 
Whetzel  and  his  son  Cyrus  and  four  companions,  all 
armed  with  axes,  chopped  their  way  westward  through 
the  forest  for  many  miles  during  the  year  1818,  clearing 
a  roadway  sufficiently  wide  for  the  passage  of  a  team—- 
although there  were  then  practically  no  teams  to  use  it. 
The  labor  of  Whetzel  and  his  companions  found  an  end 
only  when  they  had  penetrated  to  the  interior  of  the  state, 
where  they  at  last  reached  the  Berry  Trace  that  led  south- 
ward to  the  Ohio  River.2  The  Whetzel  Trace  was  used 

1  It  began   toward   the  eastern   boundary   of  the   territory,   near   the   present  town   of 
Laurel    in    Franklin    county,    and    extended    in    a    generally    westward    direction    to    White 
River.     A   discussion  of  the   first  white  traces  of   Indiana  Territory,  and  of  the  preceding 
system  of  Indian  trails,  is  to  be  found  in  Cottman's  "The  First  Thoroughfares  of  Indiana." 

2  The  junction   point   of  the   Whetzel   and   Berry   Traces  was   in   the  central   part   of 
Johnson  county,   south  of  and   not  far   from  the  site  of   Indianapolis. 

652 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

by  incoming  white  settlers  from  the  East  until  about  1826. 
They  followed  its  course  westward  until  they  came  to  its 
intersection  with  Berry's  road,  and  then  continued  north- 
ward along  that  thoroughfare  and  the  Indian  trails  lead- 
ing still  farther  north  toward  Ft.  Wayne.  Numerous 
lateral  trails  diverged  to  all  parts  of  the  territory  from  the 
trunk  lines  of  aboriginal  travel  already  mentioned,  and 
in  later  years,  after  the  new  state  had  begun  its  own  road 
building,  it  adopted  the  routes  followed  by  native  paths  in 
many  cases.1 

The  Illinois  country  also  contained  several  local 
points  from  which  Indian  highways  radiated.  Two  such 
places  in  the  southern  part  of  the  state  were  Kaskaskia 
and  Fort  Massac,2  and  similar  situations  in  the  north  were 
Black  Hawk's  village1'  and  the  present  sites  of  Chicago 
and  Galena.  An  important  native  path  extended  across 
Illinois  from  Galena  to  the  neighborhood  of  Chicago,4 
and  a  similar  thoroughfare  joined  the  Sac  and  Fox  settle- 
ment on  Rock  River  with  the  southern  end  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan. A  third  trail  connected  Kaskaskia  and  Fort  Massac, 
and  still  another  forest  trace  united  the  northern  and 
southern  parts  of  the  territory.  These  native  routes 
through  Illinois  constituted  the  first  roads  used  by  white 
settlers  in  their  overland  journeys  through  that  region. 
Not  until  1827  did  the  white  men  have  a  road  of  their  own 
making  in  the  northern  part  of  Illinois.  In  that  year  a 
path  called  "Kellog's  Trail"  was  opened  between  the 

1  "When   James   Blake   and    William   Conner   viewed,   as   commissioners,   the   first   road 
between    Indianapolis    and    Ft.    Wayne,    they    found    that   after    leaving    White    river    they 
could  not  improve  upon  the  judgment  of  the  Indians  as  shown  in  their  old  trails."     Cott- 
man's  "The  First  Thoroughfares  of  Indians,"  p.  13. 

"One  of  the  earliest  wagon-ways  out  of  Indianapolis,  .  .  .  which  led  to  Wayne 
county  before  the  coming  of  the  National  Road,  was  laid  out  on  the  White  Water 
trail."  Ibid,  p.  14. 

2  An  important  frontier  junction  point  on   the  Ohio  River,  nearly  opposite  the  mouth 
of  the  Tennessee. 

3  On   Rock   River,   about  three   miles  above   its  junction   with  the    Mississippi. 
*  Later    to   be   followed   by   a   railroad. 

653 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

settlement  of  Peoria,  in  the  north-central  part  of  the  state, 
and  Galena  in  the  extreme  northwest  corner.  Kellog's 
Trail  made  it  possible  for  the  people  of  southern  and 
central  Illinois  to  penetrate  into  its  northern  parts  over  a 
thoroughfare  created  by  themselves. 

The  custom  of  blazing  the  trees  along  a  wilderness 
road,  which  was  brought  into  the  interior  by  the  pre- 
revolutionary  pioneers,  was  continued  in  the  Middle  West 
during  the  period  under  discussion.  But  the  later  western 
men  improved  on  the  practise.  Besides  blazing  the  ways 
through  the  forest  they  adopted  a  method  of  showing  the 
distances  that  had  been  traversed.  At  the  end  of  each  mile 
—as  nearly  as  the  distance  could  be  determined — a 
prominent  tree  at  the  edge  of  the  trail  was  selected,  and 
on  its  -trunk  were  carved  large  and  deep  numerals  in- 
dicating the  number  of  miles  from  the  starting  place  to 
the  point  thus  marked.  The  figures  cut  into  the  tree  were 
then  painted  red  in  order  that  they  might  be  still  more 
noticeable. 

The  primitive  communications  system  of  Illinois  was 
united  to  that  of  Indiana  by  the  native  trails  on  the  north, 
by  the  Illinois  and  Wabash  Rivers,  and  by  the  Ohio  River 
on  the  south.  The  Indiana  paths,  in  turn,  were  linked  with 
those  of  Ohio  by  the  Ohio  River  on  the  south  and  by  the 
native  highways  extending  eastward  from  Ke-ki-on-ga  to 
Sandusky,  to  the  western  end  of  Lake  Erie,  and  to  Detroit. 
Three  trails  extended  northward  through  the  forests  of 
central  and  western  Ohio.  The  easternmost  of  these 
proceeded  from  a  little  settlement  called  Columbus  to  a 
line  of  forts  called  Morrow,  Ferree,  Seneca  and  Stephen- 
son.  Somewhat  farther  to  the  westward  a  second  Ohio 
trace  ran  north  from  Springfield  to  military  stations 
named  Forts  McArthur,  Necessity,  Finley  and  Meigs. 

654 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

The  third  Ohio  forest  path  reached  from  Dayton,  on  the 
south,  to  Forts  Lorain,  St.  Mary,  Amanda,  Jennings, 
Brown  and  Defiance.  All  three  of  these  Ohio  wilderness 
highways  were  connected  in  the  north  by  east-and-west 
traces,  and  at  Fort  Defiance  the  north-and-south  trail  of 
western  Ohio  joined  the  native  highway  proceeding  east- 
ward from  Ke-ki-on-ga,  in  Indiana.1 

The  methods  whereby  travellers  from  the  East  reached 
the  Ohio  country  before  the  introduction  of  periodic  travel 
in  that  region  have  already  been  considered.  On  their  ar- 
rival in  Kentucky  or  in  southern  or  western  Ohio  they 
were  enabled,  by  means  of  the  natural  and  native  routes 
here  outlined,  to  penetrate  through  nearly  all  the  northern 
territory  east  of  the  Mississippi  River. 

1  The  early  western  system  of  overland  travel  communications,  as  above  outlined,  is 
well  shown  on  the  large  folio  map  of  "Ohio  and  Indiana,"  in  the  "American  Atlas,"  pub- 
lished by  H.  S.  Tanner  in  1819. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

A  MORE  INTIMATE  VIEW  OF  THE  PERSONALITY,  CHARACTER, 
THOUGHTS,  HABITS,  SPEECH  AND  MANNERS  OF  THE 
LAST  PIONEER  GENERATION,  FROM  ITS  OWN  CON- 
TEMPORARY RECORDS  —  WHEELED  VEHICLES  APPEAR 
IN  THE  INTERIOR  —  TRAVEL  ADVENTURES  OF  A 
POLITICAL  CANDIDATE  —  A  VISIT  TO  CHICAGO  IN  1  822 

-  ECONOMIC  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  HORSE  AND  MAT- 
TERS GROWING  THEREFROM  —  A  NEW  TRIAL  DECLINED 
BY  A  HORSE  THIEF  —  COURT    SCENES,    PROCEEDINGS 
AND    TESTIMONY    IN    OTHER    SORTS    OF    CASES  —  A 
WHITE  MAN  HANGED  FOR  THE  MURDER  OF  AN  INDIAN 

-THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  THE  NIGHTSHIRT  INTO 
INDIANA  TAVERNS  —  DAVY  CROCKETT  TELLS  A  STORY 
OF  FLATBOAT  LIFE  —  THE  VALUE  AND  PURPOSE  OF  AN 
INQUIRY  INTO  THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE  LAST  PIONEERS 

-  A  NEW  WILDERNESS  CONFRONTS  THEM 

SUCH  were  the  social  conditions  and  travel  routes 
found  in  the  interior  during  the  first  two  decades  of 
the  nineteenth  century  by  those  restless  multitudes  who 
came  from  the  East  by  means  of  their  horses  and  boats,  or 
on  their  own  feet.  On  such  a  primitive  foundation  the 
settlers  were  destined  to  erect,  in  little  more  than  a  genera- 
tion, the  edifice  of  a  new  and  modern  society  connected 
with  the  Atlantic  coast  by  turnpikes,  canals  and  railroads. 
Those  are  the  people  whose  characters  and  habits — 
during  the  years  while  they  still  remained  a  compara- 

656 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

lively  isolated  community — we  are  about  to  observe.  The 
testimony  here  presented  concerning  them  and  their 
lives  during  the  interval  in  question  will  consist  of  records 
left  by  themselves.  And  since  one  of  those  pioneers  after- 
ward preserved  in  written  form  a  mass  of  unusual  detail 
concerning  the  daily  affairs  of  the  people  among  whom  he 
lived  it  is  well  to  indicate,  in  his  own  words,  the  conditions 
found  by  him  on  his  arrival  amid  the  scenes  in  which  his 
later  life  was  to  be  passed.1  In  describing  them,  he  said: 

"At  the  time  I  came  to  the  state  [Indiana],  in  March,  1817,  there 
was  not  a  railroad  in  the  United  States,  nor  a  canal  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghany  Mountains  .  .  .  Fire  was  struck  by  the  flint  and  steel; 
the  falling  spark  was  caught  in  punk  taken  from  the  knots  of  the 
hickory  tree.  There  was  not  a  foot  of  turnpike  road  in  the  State  and 
plank  roads  had  never  been  heard  of ;  the  girdled  standing  trees  covered 
the  cultivated  fields;  .  .  .  not  a  bridge  in  the  State;  the  traveling 
all  done  on  horseback,  the  husband  mounted  before  on  the  saddle,  with 
from  one  to  three  of  the  youngest  children  in  his  arms — the  wife,  with 
a  spread  cover  reaching  to  the  tail  of  the  horse,  sitting  behind,  with  the 
balance  of  the  children  unable  to  walk  in  her  lap;  not  a  carriage  nor 
buggy  in  all  the  country."  - 

The  pioneer  chronicler  made  an  error  in  the  passage 
just  quoted.  He  said  there  was  "not  a  carriage  nor  buggy 
in  all  the  country."  He  was  living  in  the  interior  of  In- 
diana, and  did  not  know  that  a  few  vehicles  such  as  he 
described  had  already  appeared  in  the  southern  and  more 
settled  parts  of  the  region.  On  another  page  is  reproduced 
an  official  document  issued  bv  the  infant  commonwealth— 

j 

then  one  year  old — and  showing  that  a  resident  of  the  town 
of  Vincennes  had  paid  a  tax  of  two  dollars  for  the  privilege 
of  owning  and  using  for  one  year  "a  two-wheel  carriage 

1  The  individual  to   whom  reference  is  here  made  was  Oliver  H.   Smith,   one  of  the 
prominent   figures   in   the   early    group   of   Indiana   pioneers.      He   was   a   circuit   lawyer,   a 
state  lawmaker  and   United   States   Senator.     His  descriptions   of  the  people   among  whom 
he  lived  are  narratives  of  personal  knowledge.     His  anecdotal  history  of  the  Middle  West 
was  published  in  Cincinnati  in  1858  under  the  title,  "Early  Indiana  Trials;  and  Sketches." 
Statements    or    stories    quoted    from    his    book    are    hereafter    indicated    by    the    foot-note 
"Smith." 

2  Smith,  p.   116. 

657 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


INCLINED  PLANE  ON  TII£  MORRIS  CANAL. 


196. — Scene  on  the  Morris  Canal,  in  New  Jersey.  On  this  canal  the  boats 
were  lifted  nnd  lowered  1,334  feet  to  different  levels  by  means  of  twenty- 
three  inclined  plane  railways.  Only  223  feet  were  overcome  by  the  lock 
system.  The  boats  were  eight  and  a  half  feet  wide  and  from  sixty  to 
eighty  feet  long. 

for  the  conveyance  of  persons  called  a  chaise."  So  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  travel  vehicles  of  the  sort  described 
had  reached  Indiana  by  the  year  named,  although  the 
action  of  the  state  in  putting  a  tax  upon  them  indicated 
that  such  things  were  regarded  as  luxuries — which  they 
undoubtedly  were. 

Other  taxes  imposed  by  the  territory    and    state    of 

658 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Indiana  at  about  the  same  time  shed  further  light  on 
social  conditions  in  the  region.  Between  the  years  1804 
and  1807  a  man  who  sold  merchandise  by  retail  was  re- 
quired to  pay  an  annual  sum  of  fifteen  dollars.  By  1817 
this  merchandising  tax  hacl  been  increased  to  twenty-five 
dollars,  but  the  retailer  was  also  permitted  to  sell  wines 
and  liquors  as  well  as  shoes,  clothing,  groceries  and  such 
things.  A  tavern  keeper  was  required  to  pay  an  annual 
license  fee  of  twelve  dollars  in  1813,  and  in  1816  the 
similar  amount  had  been  raised  to  twenty  dollars,  at  which 
figure  it  remained  at  least  until  1819.  From  earliest  days 
the  western  people  were  imbued  with  a  craving  for  play- 
ing the  games  known  as  billiards  and  pool,  and  the  heavy 
tables  required  for  that  amusement  were  shipped  into  the 
interior  on  flatboats  at  large  expense.  The  paraphernalia 
in  question  were  always  taxed,  and  in  1816  the  proprietor 
of  a  billiard  table  was  assessed  no  less  than  fiftv  dollars  for 

j 

the  privilege  of  maintaining  it  in  his  establishment.1 

In  continuing  his  narrative  of  early  western  conditions 
Smith  wrote: 

"I  stood  ...  on  the  site  of  Indianapolis,  the  capital  of  our  State, 
when  there  was  scarcely  a  tree  missing  from  the  dense  forest  around  it. 
I  passed  through  the  wilds  of  Marion  [the  name  of  the  county]  on  my 
pony,  upon  the  winding  Indian  path,  when  the  bear,  the  deer  and  the 
wolf  sprang  up  before  me.  ...  I  recollect  when  the  commerce  of 
Marion  and  the  infant  capital  was  carried  between  Cincinnati  and  young 
Indianapolis  by  the  semi-monthly  six-ox  train.  .  .  .  This  was  the 
second  stage  of  commercial  operations  in  Marion ;  the  single  horse  and 
the  pack  saddle  being  then  employed  in  carrying  the  mail,  the  letters  and 
papers  having  become  too  bulky  to  be  carried  in  the  pockets  of  the  mail 
boy."2 

1  There  was  a  peculiar  tax  in  vogue  in  Tennessee,  at  a  little  later  period,  the  under- 
lying reason  for  which  is  not  very  clear.     For  a  time  during  the  third  decade  a  law  of  the 
state   provided  that  travellers   or   other  people   who   were  moving  up-stream   on  any   of  the 
rivers  in  the  western  district  of  Tennessee  must  pay  a  tax  if  they  sold  groceries,  during 
such  up-stream  trips,  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  regions  they  penetrated.     This  law  was  not 
operative  against  people  who  were  s  multaneously  moving  down-stream  on  the  same  rivers. 
In    1829    the   act   was   amended,    and    such    up-stream    travellers    were    relieved    of   the    tax 
during  the  months  of  April,   May,  June,   October  and   November,  although   it  remained   in 
effect    during    the    other    portions    of    the    year. — "Acts    passed    at    the    Stated    Session    of 
the   Eighteenth   General   Assembly  of  the   State   of   Tennessee,   1829.      Nashville;   1829." 

2  Smith,   p.    287. 

659 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Although  the  population  of  the  western  country  in- 
creased rapidly  during  the  years  immediately  following 
Smith's  arrival,  the  travel  conditions  encountered  by  the 
people  did  not  alter  in  any  material  degree  in  much  of  the 
region  north  and  west  of  Ohio  until  subsequent  to  the  year 
1830.  Nine  years  after  Smith  had  reached  his  new  home 
he  found  himself  a  candidate  for  Congress,  and  in  his 
memoirs  he  told  of  a  campaign  trip  which  he  made  be- 
tween the  towns  of  Indianapolis  and  Ft.  Wayne  in  1826. 
His  description  of  the  journey  ran: 

"There  were  no  roads,  nothing  but  Indian  paths,  to  travel  at  that 
day  through  the  wilderness.  .  .  .  The  streams  were  high  and  the 
path  for  miles  under  water  in  places.  ...  I  rode  in  that  campaign 
a  small  brown  Indian  pony,  a  good  swimmer.1  .  .  .  The  path  wound 
around  the  ridges  until  the  river  [Wabash]  came  full  in  sight.  .  .  . 
The  moment  we  reached  the  river  the  Indian2  jumped  down  and  .  .  . 
was  out  of  sight  in  a  moment  in  the  wroods,  and  I  saw  nothing  of 
him  for  an  hour,  when  he  returned  with  the  bark  of  a  hickory  tree  about 
12  feet  long  and  3  feet  in  diameter.  A  fire  was  soon  made.  The  bark 
was  metamorphosed  into  a  round-bottomed  Indian  canoe.  .  .  .  The 
canoe  was  launched ;  my  saddle,  saddle-bag  and  blanket  placed  in  one 
end,  and  I  got  in  the  other.  With  my  weight  the  edges  were  about  an 
inch  above  water.  I  took  the  paddle,  and,  by  using  the  current,  landed 
safely  on  the  other  shore.3  The  Indian  swam  the  horse  over.  ...  It 
was  after  twilight  when  I  came  to  a  large  lake  directly  in  my  way. 
Fearing  to  go  on,  I  turned  the  pony  and  rode  out  into  the  woods,  to  a 
beech  tree  that  had  been  blown  down  some  time  before.  Dismounting, 
I  tied  the  pony  to  the  brush  of  the  tree,  took  off  the  saddle-bag  and 
blanket,  and  laid  down,  without  anything  to  eat,  and  very  tired.  In  a 
few  moments  I  heard  the  howling  of  wolves  in  every  direction,  some- 
times close  to  ms.  The  last  thing  I  heard,  as  I  fell  asleep,  was  an  old 
wolf  barking  some  20  feet  from  me.  I  slept  soundly  through  the  night, 
and  when  I  waked  the  sun  was  full  in  my  face.  At  dinner  I  was  at  the 
hotel  table  at  Fort  Wayne,  writh  an  excellent  appetite,  having  eaten  noth- 
ing from  early  breakfast  the  day  before.  I  made  a  speech  that  day  from 

1  All  western   horses  used  for  travel  at  that  time  were  thoroughly  trained   in   the  art 
of  swimming. 

2  It  was  a  usual  thing  for  travellers  through  unknown  districts  to  employ  native  guides. 

3  The  incident  is  reminiscent  of  the  experience  related  by  Mistress  Knight,  of  Boston, 
regarding  her  journey   from   Boston  to   New   York  about  a  century  and  a  quarter  before. 
One   of   the   same   travel    methods   employed    with    such    trepidation    by    the   New    England 
schoolmistress  was  still  commonly  in  use  only  a  few  hundred  miles  west  of  the  spot  where 
her  canoe  adventure  took  place. 

660 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

the  porch  of  the  hotel.     ...     I  received  just  ten  votes  in  the  county 
to  reward  me  for  my  perilous  trip.1 

During  this  same  campaign  of  1826  Smith  one  day 
borrowed  a  buggy  which  he  intended  to  use  on  a  road  that 
permitted  such  an  exploit.  The  vehicle  had  recently  been 
brought  from  New  England  by  a  neighbor  named  Love- 
joy,  and  had  occasioned  considerable  talk.  But  after  brief 
thought  the  candidate  reconsidered  his  determination  to 
move  about  the  country  on  wheels,  and  he  afterward  gave 
his  reason  thus: 

"I  borrowed  it  to  ride  to  Wayne  County,  but  I  gave  up  the  buggy 
and  took  my  horse,  for  fear  the  people  would  think  me  proud,  and  it 
would  injure  my  election."2 

On  another  occasion  in  the  campaign  of  1826  Smith 
and  his  adversary"5  engaged  in  a  joint  debate  at  the  town 
of  Allenville,  and  he  later  referred  to  the  incident  in  his 
memoirs. 

"The  whole  country  was  there,"  he  said.  "The  judge  was  speaking, 
and  for  the  first  time  introduced  the  new  subject  of  railroads.  He 
avowed  himself  in  favor  of  them  .  .  .  and  then,  rising  to  the  top  of 
his  voice:  'I  tell  you,  fellow  citizens,  that  in  England  they  run  the  cars 
30  miles  an  hour,  and  they  will  yet  be  run  at  a  higher  speed  in  America.' 
This  was  enough.  The  crowd  set  up  a  loud  laugh  at  the  expense  of  the 
judge.  An  old  fellow  standing  by  me  bawled  out:  'You  are  crazy,  or 
do  you  think  we  are  all  fools;  a  man  could  not  live  a  moment  at  that 
speed.'  The  day  was  mine." 

At  another  meeting  in  joint  debate  the  two  candidates 
discussed  the  tariff.  "The  people  knew  but  little  about  it," 
said  Smith,  "but  what  they  had  heard  was  decidedly 
against  it.  .  .  One  old  fellow  said  he  had  never  seen  one, 
but  he  believed  it  was  hard  on  sheep."4 

Despite  the  deplorable  lack  of  appreciation  displayed 
by  Wayne  county  in  giving  him  only  ten  votes  Smith  was 


1  Smith,  pp.   Sl-2. 

-  Smith,   p.    116.  , 
"Judge  John  Test. 

*  Smith,  p.   80. 


661 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

elected,  and  he  started  from  Indianapolis  to  Washington 
in.  November  of  1827.  He  made  the  trip  on  horseback, 
and  rode  to  the  national  capital  in  the  short  time  of  seven- 
teen days.  In  commenting  on  the  journey  he  afterward 
explained  in  his  history  that  he  could  have  availed  himself 
of  stage-coach  accommodations  for  part  of  the  distance, 


197. — A  Morris  Canal  boat  was  floated  upon  a  massive  wheeled  cradle  made  of 
heavy  timbers.  There  it  was  fastened,  and  the  cradle  was  pulled  up  or 
let  down  the  inclined  plane  by  means  of  rope  cables.  On  reaching  the 
new  level  the  cradle  ran  beneath  the  water  on  submerged  tracks,  and  the 
boat  was  released  and  floated  free  again. 

but  preferred  not  to  do  so.  "Stages  were  all  the  go,"  he 
declared,  "and  travelling  on  horseback  fast  going  out  of 
fashion."1 

The  conditions  of  overland  travel  in  the  Illinois  coun- 
try during  the  same  years  were  identical  with  those  just 
described.  White  men  were  wandering  over  the  land  in 


1  Smith,  p. 


662 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

all  directions;  extreme  interest  was  manifested  by  the 
public  in  reliable  information  regarding  natural  condi- 
tions, and  the  newspapers  of  the  time  sought  in  every  way 
to  satisfy  the  craving  for  such  knowledge.  They  fre- 
quently printed  letters  written  by  men  who  had  penetrated 
to  out-of-the-way  spots.  A  sample  communication  of  the 
sort,  written  in  1822,  is  here  quoted.  It  dealt  princi- 
pally with  an  almost  unknown  little  settlement  called 
Chicago,  and  read  in  part  as  follows:1 

"After  experiencing  considerable  privations  and  dangers  in  traveling 
by  land  from  Green  Bay  to  Chicago,  a  distance  of  about  230  miles,  I 
was  amply  compensated  by  a  view  of  the  latter  place,  which  presents  so 
much  for  interesting  observation.  Nature  has  in  store  so  many  and  so 
great  advantages  at  this  spot,  which  can  be  easily  recognized  [grasped] 
by  unlocking  them  at  a  moderate  expense,  that  any  great  length  of  time 
will  not,  according  to  the  progress  of  improvement  making  in  our  coun- 
try, continue  before  great  attention  is  attracted  to  it.  ...  Public 
attention  will  ere  long  be  attracted  to  this  important  and  interesting  sec- 
tion of  the  country.  The  Indian  title  is  getting  fast  extinguished,  and  is 
mostly  done  already,  and  the  Indians  are  clearing  out  of  it.  ...  But 
few  men  of  science  and  observation  have  yet  visited  the  country,  as  the 
dwelling  of  a  white  man  is  not  to  be  seen  from  Fort  Clark  to  Chicago." 

The  extreme  economic  importance  of  the  horse  in  the 
interior  during  the  early  part  of  the  century  constantly 
resulted  in  efforts  to  acquire  beasts  of  burden  by  dishonest 
methods.  A  scheme  sometimes  used  by  plausible  scoundrels 
who  were  engaged  in  horse  stealing  as  a  profession  was 
to  appear  in  a  new  community  and  set  up  in  business  as 
liverymen.  This  device  was  usually  operated  by  two 
swindlers  who  worked  together.  After  they  had  become 
established,  and  had  been  given  custody  of  a  quantity  of 
horse-flesh  they  would  disappear  between  two  days,  taking 
with  them  the  valuable  property  entrusted  to  their  care. 

1  Printed  in  the  "Farmers  and  Mechanics  Journal,"  of  Vincennes,  on  June  12,  1823, 
and  by  that  paper  credited  to  the  "Vandalia  Intelligencer"  of  an  unnamed  earlier  day.  The 
letter  was  published  under  the  title  "Journal  of  a  Traveller  through  the  Great  Western 
Lakes  and  down  the  Illinois  River,  in  July,  August  and  September,  1822." 

A  picture  showing  Chicago  as  it  appeared  about  the  same  date  is  elsewhere  reproduced. 

663 


The  customary  aftermath  of  such  an  incident — an  in- 
dignant advertisement  in  the  local  newspaper — seldom 
produced  the  desired  results.  A  typical  public  notice  of 
such  an  incident  began i1 

"Eloped  from  Vincennes  with  one  handsome  roan  Mare,  two  bay 
mares  and  one  small  flee-bitten  grey."  The  advertisement,  after  describ- 
ing the  two  swindlers,  went  on  to  say:  "These  rascals  came  to  Vin- 
cennes some  time  ago,  and  got  into  business  as  Livery  Stable  Keepers, 
and  by  their  fair  speeches  and  apparent  honesty  and  industrious  habits, 
induced  the  subscribers  to  become  their  sureties  in  contracts  to  a  large 
amount;  and,  after  carrying  on  for  some  time,  getting  into  debt  as  much 
as  possible,  and  pocketing  all  the  cash  they  could,  they  made  their  escape, 
leaving  many  people  in  the  suds."2 

Another  popular  way  of  acquiring  horses  through  il- 
legitimate means  was  the  method  of  buying  them  by 
counterfeit  money,  of  which  a  large  amount  was  in  circula- 
tion throughout  the  country.  One  Jesse  Britton,  also  of 
Vincennes,  was  a  victim  of  this  practise  during  the  same 
year  of  1820.  He  sold  a  fine  horse  for  a  hundred  dollars 
in  counterfeit  bills,  and  told  his  trouble  to  the  public  in 
an  advertisement  as  usual.3  Britton's  notice  in  the  news- 
paper was  of  no  especial  importance  as  a  document  afford- 
ing new  information  on  certain  financial  methods  of  the 
time,  but  it  was  noteworthy  in  a  particular  unrealized  by 
its  author.  It  contained  what  mav  wrell  be  one  of  the 

_/ 

most  vivid  portrayals  of  the  early  type  of  American  con- 
fidence-man or  "sport"  to  be  found  in  the  literature  of 
those  years.  Here  is  the  description  of  the  stranger: 

"The  rascal  is  rather  stout  built,  5  feet  8  or  9  inches  high,  wtvV 
hair  and  whiskers,  red  flushed  complexion,  hairy  and  sunburnt  about  the 
neck,  with  long,  yellow  and  disagreeable  looking  teeth.  He  wore  an  old 
white  fur  hat,  green  frock  coat,  the  cuffs  of  which  were  edged  with 
velvet — blue  striped  domestic  overalls  or  trousers,  short  boots  or  bootees, 
which  had  been  mended,  and  a  seam  across  one  of  them." 

1  From  the  "Indiana  Centinel"   (Vincennes)   of  November  4.  1820. 

2The  expression  of  pioneer  American  slang  which  concludes  this  advertisement  is 
probably  the  early  form  of  a  present-day  expression  which — measured  by  slang  standards- 
is  decidedly  less  dignified. 

s  In  the   "Indiana   Centinel"  of  July  8. 

664 


CANAL  NAVIGATOR. 


BY 

S.  ALSPACH, 


PHILADELPHIA  .- 

PRINTED  BY  JOSEPH  RAKESTHAW, 
FOK  THE  AUTHOR. 


198. — Early  literature  dealing  with  the  subject  of  travel  in  America.  Title  page 
of  a  guide  book  written  for  those  using  the  Schuylkill  Canal.  It  gave  the 
location  of  all  stumps,  rocks  and  similar  dangers  to  navigation,  with  other 
information  necessary  for  the  avoidance  of  shipwreck. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

The  advertisement  concluded  with  the  information 
that  whoever  caught  the  scoundrel  was  to  receive  twenty 
dollars  in  genuine  money.  No  immediate  results  seem  to 
have  been  produced  by  the  proclamation,  for  it  continued 
to  appear  in  the  newspaper  for  several  weeks. 

The  very  striking  masculine  costume  just  described 
was  characteristic  of  the  period,  and  a  somewhat  similar 
array  was  worn  by  nearly  every  man  who  tried  by  means 
of  his  apparel  to  surround  himself  with  an  atmosphere  of 
dignity,  or  the  nearest  approach  to  that  quality  which  he 
could  simulate.  The  imposingly  tall  and  somewhat  bell- 
crowned  stovepipe  hats  of  the  time  were  either  white, 
gray,  brown  or  straw-colored,  according  to  the  taste  of  the 
wearer.  The  voluminous  frock  coat  was  blue,  green, 
claret-colored,  brown,  dull  red,  or  of  any  other  color  de- 
sired, and  usually  had  a  collar  and  cuffs  made  of  velvet  in 
some  contrasting  shade.  The  trousers  were  often  equally 
spectacular  in  appearance,  and  the  bootees  reached 
about  half-way  between  the  ankle  and  the  knee.  The 
waistcoat— not  mentioned  in  the  above  advertisement- 
was  ordinarily  of  some  color  that  would  contrast  with  the 
big  frock  coat  beneath  which  it  was  worn.  Very  little  of 
the  clothing  used  by  men  during  the  American  pioneer 
period  has  survived  to  the  present  day,  and  such  apparel 
is  now  exceedingly  rare.1 

Once  in  a  while  a  few  of  the  innumerable  horse  thieves 
who  plied  their  trade  throughout  the  West  were  captured 
and  brought  to  jail.  This  usually  happened  after  an 
epidemic  of  thievery,  and  a  case  of  the  sort  that  took  place 
at  Vincennes  in  the  early  days  was  described  by  Smith  in 

1  Possibly  the  most  comprehensive  collection  of  the  sort  extant  is  that  preserved  in 
the  little  village  of  Geneseo,  in  New  York  state.  It  is  in  some  respects  unfortunate  that 
the  remarkable  Geneseo  collection  of  civilian  and  military  apparel,  personal  belongings 
and  household  utensils  of  the  pioneers  is  not  located  in  a  more  accessible  center  where 
the  significance  and  value  of  its  treasures  might  be  more  widely  recognized. 

666 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

his  reminiscences.  Thirty-nine  lashes  on  the  bare  back 
still  remained  the  penalty  inflicted  on  conviction  for  a  first 
offense.  The  jail  was  for  once  full  of  horse  thieves,  and 
when  the  time  arrived  for  their  trial  the  judge  before 
whom  they  were  fated  to  appear  was  General  Marston  G. 
Clark,  a  cousin  of  George  Rogers  Clark.  The  judge  was 
an  unusually  perfect  and  eye-filling  specimen  of  the  finest 
type  of  western  pioneer,  and  Smith  described  his  appear- 
ance as  he  presided  over  the  backwoods  tribunal. 

"He  was,"  said  Smith,  "about  six  feet  in  his  stockings, 
of  a  very  muscular  appearance;  wore  a  hunting  shirt, 
leather  pants,  moccasins  and  a  fox-skin  cap,  with  a  long 
queue  down  his  back."1 

When  the  first  malefactor  appeared  before  that  awe- 
inspiring  figure  his  lawyer  made  formal  objection  to  the 
indictment  on  the  ground  that  his  client  was  improperly 
named  in  the  instrument.  Such  was  in  truth  the  fact,  for 
the  defendant's  middle  initial  had  been  omitted.  The 
judge  overruled  the  objection  in  the  following  language : 

"That  makes  no  difference;  I  know  the  man,  and  that  is  sufficient." 
Objection  number  two :     "There  is  no  value  put  on  the  horse  in  the 
indictment." 

Ruling:     "I  know  an  Indian  pony  is  worth  ten  dollars." 
Objection  number  three:     "It  is  charged  in  the  indictment  to  be  a 
horse,  when  he  is  a  gelding." 

Ruling:  "I  shall  consider  that  a  gelding  is  a  horse;  motion  over- 
ruled." 

These  preliminaries  having  been  disposed  of,  the  trial 
proceeded.  Legal  technicalities  had  already  appeared  in 
American  judicial  history,  but  had  not  yet  acquired  the 
commanding  importance  they  afterward  attained.  Tes- 
timony was  taken,  the  man  was  found  guilty,  and  was 

1  One  or  more  of  the  Justices  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  still  wore  similar 
queues  at  as  late  a  date  as  1827. 

667 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL   IN   AMERICA 

sentenced  to  receive  thirty-nine  lashes.  Whereupon  the 
convicted  man's  lawyer  interposed  another  objection. 

"We  move  an  arrest  of  judgment,"  he  said,  "on  the 
ground  that  it  is  not  charged  in  the  indictment  that  the 
horse  was  stolen  in  the  Territory  of  Indiana." 

The  figure  on  the  bench  remained  for  a  moment  silent. 
He  sat  as  still  as  a  graven  image.  "That  I  consider  a 
more  serious  objection,"  he  finally  replied.  "I  will  con- 
sider on  it  till  morning." 

Late  in  the  evening  Judge  Clark  held  a  brief  consulta- 
tion with  the  sheriff,  and  at  midnight  that  official  took  the 
prisoner  from  the  log  jail,  escorted  him  far  into  the  forest, 
bound  him  to  a  tree  with  his  face  toward  its  trunk, 
stripped  off  his  shirt,  and  laid  thirty-nine  fearful  lashes 
on  his  bare  back.  In  the  morning  the  prisoner  was  again 
brought  before  the  judge  without  having  opportunity  to 
communicate  with  his  counsel,  and  the  lawyer  again  arose 
and  repeated  his  objection.  Judge  Clark  announced  that 
he  had  decided  to  grant  the  defendant  a  new  trial. 

Up  sprang  the  prisoner.  "No!"  he  screamed.  "No! 
for  heaven's  sake!  I  discharge  my  attorney  and  with- 
draw the  motion."1 

Every  other  man  in  the  jail  got  a  like  dose,  and  horse 
stealing  was  for  several  years  a  lost  art  in  Indiana.  What 
could  technicalities  avail  against  that  ominous  figure  on 
the  bench.  Six  feet  of  muscle  in  a  hunting  shirt,  fox-skin 
cap,  moccasins  and  leather  pants.  It  was  justice  in- 
carnate.2 

In  those  days,  even  as  in  these,  many  of  the  beliefs  and 

1  Smith,   pp.    160-1. 

2  Immediately    after   the    Republic    of    Texas   came    into    existence,    a    few   years   after- 
ward, the  Congress  of  that  nation   passed  a  law  ordaining  that  a  horse  thief  should   have 
the  letter  T  branded   on   his   flesh   with   a   red-hot   iron,   "in   such   place   as   the   court  shall 
direct."     That  penalty  was  in  addition  to  a  fine  not  exceeding  $1000,  imprisonment  up  to 
one  year,  and  39  lashes  on  the  bare  back. — "Laws  of  the  Republic  of  Texas,  etc.     Printed 
by    Order   of   the    Secretary   of    State.      Houston,    1838,"    p.    189.      The    law   was   approved 
December  21,  1836. 

668 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

practises  of  the  people  were  reflected  in  their  legal  dis- 
putes, and  the  lost  colloquial  story  of  the  early  courts — 
could  it  have  been  preserved  in  its  entirety — would  have 
been  an  invaluable  commentary  on  the  life  and  society  of 
the  time.  Smith  told  this  incident:  A  case  was  presented 
to  the  grand  jury  against  a  man  who  had  sold  whisky  at 

WORCESTER  FAIR. 


FjflO  accommodate  those  wish  to  attend  the  Wor- 
Ji  cester  Cattle  Sh«nv,  from  Providence,  and  the 
intermediate  places,  the  packet  boat  Carrington  will 
leave  the  Basin  on  Tuesday  morning,  October  6,  at 
6  o'clock  for  Worcester,  going  through  en  that  clay, 
returning,  will  leav.e  Worcester  on  Thursday  morn- 
ing, and  arrive  in  Providence  the  same  evening. 

Passengers  who  intend  going  in  bar,  must  be  on 
board  at  the  tune  above  mentioned, as  she  will  leave 
precisely  at  that  hour.  sent  28 

199. — Special  excursion  canal  boats  were  run  to  accommodate  the  public  on 
unusual  occasions.  Advertisement  of  such  an  excursion  boat,  which  car- 
ried passengers  from  Providence,  in  Rhode  Island,  to  the  cattle  show  in 
Worcester,  Massachusetts,  in  one  day. 

retail  without  license.  The  proof  was  positive.  The 
question  was  put  and  the  jurors  unanimously  voted  that  an 
indictment  be  drawn.  Mr.  Fletcher,  the  prosecuting  at- 
torney who  was  presenting  the  evidence  to  the  grand  jury, 
drew  the  bill,  handed  it  to  the  foreman  and  asked  him  to 
sign  it.  The  foreman  replied:  "I  shall  do  no  such  thing, 
Mr.  Fletcher;  I  sell  whisky  without  license  myself,  and 
I  shall  not  indict  others  for  what  I  do."  A  deadlock 

669 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

thereupon  ensued,  and  the  two  guardians  of  the  public 
peace  explained  the  situation  to  the  judge  in  person,  but 
that  official  was  either  unable  or  disinclined  to  suggest 
any  practical  solution  to  the  dilemma.  So  the  two  men 
went  back  to  the  grand  jury  room  again.  Then  Prosecu- 
ting Attorney  Fletcher  took  off  his  coat,  doubled  up  his 
fists,  stepped  up  to  the  foreman  and  said,  "The  law  re- 
quires the  last  step  to  be  taken."  The  foreman  signed  the 
indictment.1 

Another  legal  combat  described  by  Smith  shows  the 
political  feeling  of  those  days  and  the  personal  animosity 
in  which  it  sometimes  resulted.  The  two  political  parties 
of  the  time  were  the  Democratic-Republican,  which  was 
then  in  power,  and  the  Federalist,  whose  influence  was 
rapidly  disappearing.  Almost  all  the  western  people 
were  Democrats,  and  according  to  the  incident  narrated 
a  citizen  named  John  Allen  had  called  another  man 
named  Joshua  Harlan  "an  old  Federalist."  Harlan 
brought  suit  against  Allen  for  damages.  His  complaint 
declared  that  "by  the  publishing  of  which  false,  slanderous 
and  defamatory  libel  the  plaintiff  has  been  brought  into 
public  disgrace,  and  his  neighbors  have  since  refused  to 
have  any  intercourse  with  him." 

The  case  came  to  trial  and  the  first  witness  for  the 
plaintiff  was  a  man  named  Herndon,  who  had  come  to 
Indiana  in  very  early  days.  He  was  asked  the  question: 

"Do  you  consider  it  libelous  and  slanderous  to  call  a  man  a  Fed- 
eralist?". 

Answer:     "I  do." 

Question :  "Which  would  you  rather  a  man  would  call  you,  a  Fed- 
eralist or  a  horse  thief?" 

Answer:    "I  would  shoot  him  if  he  called  me  one  or  the  other." 

Twenty-nine  more  witnesses  gave  identical  testimony 

1  Smith,  pp.  57-8. 

670 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

for  the  plaintiff.  The  jury  debated  the  subject  all  night 
and  came  back  into  court  next  morning  with  a  verdict  find- 
ing Allen  guilty  and  fining  him  one  thousand  dollars. 
After  the  jury  had  announced  the  result  of  its  delibera- 
tions the  presiding  judge  said  to  its  members :  "The  court 
are  well  satisfied  with  your  verdict,  gentlemen;  you  are 
discharged."1 

The  testimony  of  a  defendant  in  a  commonplace  case 
wherein  the  charge  was  assault  and  battery  was  set  down 
by  Smith  as  follows : 

"I  told  him  he  lied ;  he  told  me  I  lied.  I  spit  in  his  face ;  he  spit  in 
my  face.  I  slapped  him  in  the  face ;  he  slapped  me  in  the  face.  I  kicked 
him;  ha  kicked  me.  I  tripped  him  up;  he  tripped  me  up.  I  struck  him 
and  knocked  him  down;  he  got  up  and  knocked  me  down.  I  then  got 
mad;  he  got  mad,  and  we  were  just  agoing  to  fight  when  the  saloon 
keeper  got  between  us.  That  is  all."2 

The  plaintiff  was  fined  one  dollar;  the  defendant  was 
fined  one  dollar. 

But  the  case  which  was— in  one  way — the  most  im- 
portant of  all  those  recounted  by  Smith  was  a  series  of 
trials  in  which  four  white  men  were  charged  with  the 
killing  of  nine  Indians.  The  affair  took  place  in  1824,  at 
a  time  when  the  prejudice  entertained  by  the  mass  of  the 
whites  against  the  natives  was  still  occasionally  in  evi- 
dence, though  not  so  extreme  in  its  character  as  in  former 
years.  Two  men  of  the  Seneca  nation,  together  with  their 
wives  and  one  other  squaw,  and  four  children  between  the 
ages  of  infancy  and  ten  years,  had  established  a  hunting 
camp  in  the  forest.  Five  white  men  came  to  the  Indian 
camp  one  day  saying  they  were  travellers  who  had  lost 
their  horses  in  the  woods.  The  Indian  men  dropped  their 
own  affairs,  offered  their  help  in  recovering  the  animals, 


1  Smith,  pp.  120-122. 
*  Smith,  pp.  335-6. 


672 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

and  set  forth  with  their  visitors  for  that  purpose.  After 
the  Senecas  had  been  shot  from  behind  the  white  men 
returned  to  the  camp  and  killed  the  women  and  three  of 
the  children.  The  fourth  child  was  only  wounded,  and 
was  despatched  by  having  its  brains  knocked  out  against 
the  end  of  a  log. 

One  of  the  whites  concerned  in  the  affair  made  his 
escape,  but  the  other  four  were  arrested.  Although  the 
old  frontier  doctrine  that  "the  only  good  Indian  is  a  dead 
Indian"  still  commanded  supporters  as  a  theoretical 
proposition,  the  crime  inspired  a  general  feeling  of  con- 
demnation among  the  Caucasian  population.  The  four 
prisoners  were  tried  separately.  The  cases  were  con- 
sidered to  be  of  such  importance,  and  public  interest  in 
them  was  so  widespread,  that  a  new  and  pretentious  log 
court-house,  containing  two  rooms,  was  built  to  serve  as 
the  theater  of  the  legal  drama.  The  court  room  itself  was 
some  twenty-five  or  thirty  feet  square,  and  the  judges  sat 
on  a  narrow  platform  about  three  feet  high,  built  along 
one  side  of  the  room.  Their  seat  was  a  long  wooden 
bench.  On  the  floor  in  front  of  the  judges'  platform  was 
a  similar  bench  for  the  lawyers,  a  little  wooden  pen  for 
prisoners,  a  table  for  the  clerk  of  the  court,  and  still 
another  bench  for  witnesses.  A  long  pole  separated  the 
official  section  of  the  court  from  that  part  of  its  area  de- 
voted to  the  use  of  spectators,  who  stood  up.  The  other 
room  in  the  court-house  was  for  the  use  of  jurymen,  and 
its  dedication  to  such  a  purpose  marked  a  decided  ad- 
vance in  that  element  of  pioneer  court  procedure.  The 
grand  jury  which  had  indicted  the  four  men  had  carried 
on  its  discussions  while  seated  on  a  fallen  log  out  in  the 
woods. 

673 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

An  imposing  array  of  counsel,  including  General 
Sampson  Mason  of  Ohio,  defended  the  first  of  the 
prisoners  brought  to  account.  General  Mason  discussed 
the  scenes  attending  the  trial  in  a  letter  that  he  sent  back 
to  Ohio,  and  which  finally  found  publication  in  a  news- 
paper there.  One  part  of  his  description  read:  "As  I 
entered  the  court  room  the  Judge  was  sitting  on  a  block 
paring  his  toenails,  when  the  sheriff  entered,  out  of  breath, 
and  informed  the  court  that  he  had  six  jurors  tied,  and  his 
deputies  were  running  down  the  others."  In  discussing 
the  passage  here  quoted  from  the  letter  of  the  eminent 
Ohio  lawyer,  Smith  said:  "General  Mason,  with  all  his 
candor,  unquestionably  drew  upon  his  imagination  in  this 
case."  It  is  a  loss  to  the  riches  of  historical  integrity  that 
Smith  himself  was  not  more  specific  in  challenging  the 
accuracy  of  his  colleague.  For  if  we  analyze  both  General 
Mason's  description  and  the  precise  terms  of  its  impeach- 
ment, we  find  that  Senator  Smith  might  have  based  his 
contradiction  on  the  point  that  the  sheriff  was  not  out  of 
breath  when  he  made  his  announcement. 

The  twelve  men  who  sat  in  judgment  were  arrayed  in 
the  pioneer  habiliments  of  the  day,  including  moccasins 
and  side-knives.  The  case  was  concluded  for  the  prisoner 
"in  able,  eloquent  and  powerful  speeches,  appealing  to 
the  prejudice  of  the  jury  against  the  Indians;  relating  in 
glowing  colors  the  early  massacres  of  white  men,  women 
and  children  by  the  Indians;  reading  the  principal  in- 
cidents in  the  history  of  Daniel  Boone  and  Simon  Kenton 
.  .  .  and  not  forgetting  the  defeat  of  Braddock,  St.  Clair 
and  Harmar  .  .  .  Judge  Wick  charged  the  jury  at  some 
length  .  .  .  and  distinctly  impressing  upon  the  jury  .  .  . 
that  the  murder  of  an  Indian  was  equally  as  criminal  in 
law  as  the  murder  of  a  white  man." 

674 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

One  of  the  defendants  was  found  guilty  of  man- 
slaughter and  the  other  three  were  convicted  of  murder 
in  the  first  degree.  The  sentence  of  one  murderer  was 

o 

commuted,  and  the  other  two  suffered  the  extreme  penalty 
of  the  law.  Of  the  final  scene  Smith  remarked:  "A 
Seneca  Chief,  with  his  warriors,  stood  on  a  hill  that  com- 
manded a  view  of  the  gallows.  'We  are  satisfied,'  the 
Chief  said.  Thus  ended  the  only  trials  where  convictions 
of  murder  were  ever  had,  followed  by  the  execution  of 
white  men,  for  killing  Indians  in  the  United  States."1 

Two  other  incidents  contained  in  the  printed  annals  of 
the  time — one  dealing  with  a  tavern  keeper  and  the  other 
with  an  adventure  of  Davy  Crockett — will  be  of  aid  in 
portraying  the  pioneer  men  whose  lives,  manners  and 
characters  are  here  discussed.  The  innkeeper  in  question 
was  Captain  John  Berry,2  who  kept  a  tavern  at  Anderson- 
town,  in  Indiana.  Berry  was  inordinately  proud  of  the 
cleanliness  of  his  establishment,  and  his  well-known  feel- 
ing in  that  regard  was  on  one  occasion  made  the  basis  of  a 
practical  joke  which  came  near  to  ending  in  unpleasant 
consequences.  The  date  of  the  incident  was  about  1830, 
at  which  time  it  was  the  custom  of  probably  a  large 
majority  of  men — especially  in  the  frontier  regions — to 
retire  for  the  night,  no  matter  where  they  slept,  without 
removing  the  shirts  worn  by  them  in  the  daytime.  That 
useful  garment  known  as  the  nightshirt,  although  well 
established  and  growing  in  popularity  throughout  the 
East,  had  not  yet  appeared  in  the  West  in  sufficient  quanti- 
ties or  with  sufficient  frequency  to  make  it  a  familiar 
article  of  apparel.  A  man  travelling  in  the  interior  went 
to  bed  in  his  shirt  and  never  gave  the  matter  a  thought; 
nor  did  the  tavern  keeper  at  whose  house  he  lodged. 

1  Smith,   pp.   51-57   and  p.   179. 

-  From   whom   the   "Berry  Trace"   was   named. 

675 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Now  it  so  happened  that  there  one  day  came  to  Berry's 
tavern  in  Andersontown  a  little  group  of  prominent  men 
among  whom  were  the  Smith  mentioned  in  these  pages, 
and  another  well-known  lawyer  named  James  Whit- 
comb.1  Whitcomb  possessed  a  njightshirt,  and  what  is 
more  he  carried  it  about  the  country  with  him  and  used  it. 
His  companions  of  course  knew  of  his  idiosyncrasy,  and 
on  arrival  at  the  Berry  establishment  they  decided  to  play 
a  joke  on  the  proprietor  which  should  have  the  Whitcomb 
nightgown  as  its  foundation.  So — giving  the  matter  an 
aspect  of  unusual  importance  and  secrecy — they  went  to 
Berry  and  told  him  that  Whitcomb,  on  a  previous  visit, 
had  acquired  a  poor  opinion  of  the  cleanliness  of  the 
sheets  used  on  Berry's  beds  and  that  he  had  therefore 
brought  with  him  a  special  shirt  which  he  intended  to 
wear  when  he  went  to  sleep,  in  order  that  he  might  not 
soil  his  regular  shirt. 

Berry  refused  to  believe  the  charge.  He  could  not 
think  so  ill  of  his  distinguished  guest.  But  the  con- 
spirators insisted  they  were  right,  and  told  the  landlord 
he  might  convince  himself  with  his  own  eyes  at  the  proper 
time.  When  Whitcomb  retired  to  his  room  at  night  the 
landlord  tiptoed  silently  behind  him,  still  unconvinced, 
and  gluing  his  eye  to  the  keyhole  he  watched  the  procedure 
within.  He  saw  Whitcomb  actually  take  off  his  shirt  and 
put  on  another  one,  as  had  been  described.  The  sub- 
stitute even  seemed  longer  than  the  ordinary  shirt,  as 
though  its  wearer  desired  to  protect  himself  to  the  last 
degree.  The  incredible  story,  then,  was  alt  too  true. 
Berry  burst  open  the  door  in  a  fury,  rushed  in,  sprang 
upon  Whitcomb  and  bore  him  down,  preparatory  to  the 
infliction  of  condign  punishment  on  a  man  who  dared  cast 

1  Who  not  long  afterward  became  Governor  of  Indiana. 

676 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

such  unmerited  odium  on  his  establishment.  The  per- 
petrators of  the  hoax,  hearing  the  struggle,  hurried  to  the 
spot  and  declared  it  was  all  a  joke,  insisting  that  people  in 
other  parts  of  the  country  really  wore  such  things  also. 
Finally  they  convinced  the  landlord — or  at  least  instilled 
a  doubt  into  his  mind — and  peace  was  restored.1 

It  was  this  same  Captain  Berry  who,  while  walking 
on  Broadway  one  Sunday  during  his  first  journey  to  New 
York,  paused  in  front  of  a  pretentious  building  into  which 
numerous  people  were  entering.  The  edifice  was  a 
church,  though  the  stranger  from  Indiana  was  not  aware 
of  the  fact.  He  was  cordially  invited  to  enter  by  a  man 
stationed  outside  for  the  purpose,  and  just  at  that  moment 
the  organ  inside  burst  into  the  strains  of  a  march.  Where- 
upon Captain  Berry  hastily  declined  the  invitation,  saying 
that  he  "never  danced."2 

The  Crockett  adventure  was  written  by  himself,  and 
was  found  among  his  personal  papers  in  Tennessee  after 
he  fell  at  the  Alamo.  Though  but  a  fragment  describing 
an  alleged  incident  of  river  life  in  the  early  days,  it  re- 
vealed the  temper,  customs  and  vernacular  of  a  certain 
type  of  western  men  whose  numbers  were  far  from  small. 
Crockett's  narrative  read: 

"One  day  as  I  was  sitting  in  the  stern  of  my  broad  horn,  the  old  Free 
and  Easy,  on  the  Mississippi,  taking  a  horn  of  midshipman's  grog,  with 
a  tin  pot  in  each  hand,  first  a  draugh  of  whiskey,  and  1ih.cn  one  of  river 
water,  who  should  float  down  past  me  but  Joe  Snag;  he  was  in  a  snooze, 
as  fast  as  a  church,  with  his  mouth  wide  open ;  he  had  been  ramsquaddled 
writh  whiskey  for  a  fortnight,  and  as  it  evaporated  from  his  body  it 
looked  like  the  steam  from  a  vent  pipe.  Knowing  the  feller  would  be 
darned  hard  to  wake,  with  all  this  steam  on,  as  he  floated  past  me  I 
hit  him  a  crack  over  his  knob  with  my  big  steering  oar.  He  waked  in  a 
thundering  rage.  Says  he,  halloe  stranger,  who  axed  you  to  crack  my 
lice?  Says  I,  shut  up  your  mouth,  or  your  teeth  will  get  sunburnt.  Upon 


1  Smith,  pp-  74-5. 

2  Smith,  p.   75. 


677 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

this  he  crooked  up  his  neck  and  neighed  like  a  stallion.1  I  clapped  my 
arms  and  crowed  like  a  cock.2  Says  he,  if  you  are  a  game  chicken  I'll 
pick  all  the  pin  feathers  off  of  you.  For  some  time  back  I  had  been  so 
wolfy  about  the  head  and  shoulders  that  I  was  obliged  to  keep  kivered 
up  in  a  salt  crib  to  keep  from  spiling,  for  I  had  not  had  a  fight  for  as 
much  as  ten  days.  Says  I,  give  us  none  of  your  chin  music,  but  set  your 
kickers  on  land,  and  I'll  give  you  a  severe  licking.  The  fellow  now 
jumped  ashore,  and  he  was  so  tall  he  could  not  tell  when  his  feet  wrere 
cold.  He  jumped  up  a  rod.  Says  he,  take  care  how  I  lite  on  you,  and 
he  gave  me  a  real  sockdologer  that  made  my  very  liver  and  lites  turn  to 
jelly.  But  he  found  me  a  real  scrcuger.  I  brake  three  of  his  ribs,  and 
he  knocked  out  five  of  my  teeth  and  one  eye.  He  was  the  severest  colt 
that  ever  I  tried  to  break.  I  finally  got  a  bite  hold  that  he  could  not  shake 
off.  We  were  now  parted  by  some  boatmen,  and  we  were  so  exorsted 
that  it  was  more  than  a  month  before  either  could  have  a  fight.  It  seemed 
to  me  like  a  little  eternity.  And  although  I  didn't  come  out  second  best, 
I  took  care  not  to  wake  up  a  ring  tailed  roarer  with  an  oar  again."3 

The  conditions  and  incidents  that  have  been  related- 
glimpses  at  the  people  of  the  interior  through  records  left 
by  themselves — certainly  do  not  constitute  a  complete  pic- 
ture of  those  times,  nor  is  their  present  use  intended  to  sug- 
gest such  a  canvas.  But  nevertheless  they  have  their  value 
to  us  in  our  desire  to  build  up  a  better  present  understand- 
ing of  the  Americans  of  those  days.  For,  somewhat  as  the 
comparative  anatomist  by  the  aid  of  five  or  six  bones 
may  reconstruct  with  marvellous  exactitude  an  unknown 
animal  of  long  ago,  and  discover  its  habits  and  methods 
of  life,  so  also  may  we  gain  a  little  broader  knowledge  of 

1  A   challenge   to  battle. 

2  Acceptance   of  the   challenge. 

3  From  Vol.  7,  No.  4,  of  "Davy  Crockett's  Almanack  of  Wild  Sports  in  the  West,  etc." 
Nashville,   Tenn.,    1838.      The  preface   of   this   publication   states   that    it   is   printed   by   the 

'  -s  of  Colonel  Crockett,  and  that  in  addition  to  those  numbers  already  issued,  five  more 


. 

dr 


statement  tnen  soes  on  to  say:  Mis  posthumous  papers  contain  a  great  number  pt 
wild  frolics  and  scrapes,  together  with  adventurous  exploits  in  the  chase,  both  those  in 
which  he  was  engaged  himself,  and  others  that  came  w;thin  his  knowledge.  The  engrav- 
ings are  mostly  taken  from  his  drawings,  which  are  very  spirited.  He  drew  on  birch 
bark  with  a  burnt  stick." 

ns  to   have  been   unknown   to  American   bibliog- 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

the  generation  in  question  by  the  study  of  such  frag- 
ments as  these.  Each  circumstance,  law  or  story  in  itself 
is  a  small  thing,  by  no  means  dependable  as  a  basis  for 
general  conclusions  concerning  the  period  discussed.  Yet 
when  all  of  them  are  considered  together  we  feel  that  we 


MERCHANTS'    CANAL    LINE. 


Between  New-York  and  Philadelphia,  via  Delaware  ami  Karitan  Canal. 

FOR  THE  CONVEYANCE  OF  MERCHANDIZE,  SPECIE,  BAGGAGE,  dec.  fcc.i  AND  I.N>I   !:  \M'K.   KPKECTED. 

WHENEVER  REQUIRED,  ON  ANY  PACKAGE,  TO  ITS  FULL  AMor.vj    <.,].    \  U.ri:. 
AT)    V   fS//i~\  THOMS<>N  4"  ff£lLSO?r,JYetl  Sine!,  opposite  Pier  2  X.  R.,  jVew  York,  Proprietor*. 
UV't/''dzK&A^  *****  *HIPI»W»a»H  OW/i  HTtoma,  PModfJphm,  Agent. 

201  —  After  railways  had  appeared  in  the  East  and  had  made  the  old  horse- 
drawn  canal  craft  unprofitable,  a  few  of  the  boat  companies  tried  to  keep 
up  the  fight  by  using  steam  tow-boats.  Billhead  of  the  Merchants'  Line 
on  the  Delaware  and  Raritan  Canal,  between  New  York  and  Philadelphia, 
in  1843. 

0 

possess  more  than  a  surmise  respecting  the  years  we  are 
striving  to  see. 

The  laws,  events,  conditions,  sketches  and  anecdotes 
given  in  this  and  the  preceding  chapter  are  selections  from 
hundreds  of  similar  ones  that  might  be  cited  from  the 
same  and  other  contemporary  native  sources.  It  is  a 
principle  of  historical  narrative  that  the  one  who 
writes  must  not  incorporate  in  his  recital  any  unusual 
condition  of  earlier  times  merely  because  it  was  unusual, 
or  an  isolated  circumstance  of  former  days  whose 
character  is  apt  to  produce,  in  the  mind  of  the  reader,  an 
impression  inconsistent  with  truth.  To  avoid  the  creation 

679 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

of  a  false  belief,  and  to  paint,  as  far  as  is  possible,  a  real 
and  somewhat  comprehensive  picture  of  an  epoch 
under  consideration,  it  is  necessary  that  a  historian 
summon  to  his  aid  the  laws,  surroundings,  habits,  beliefs, 
speech  and  deeds  of  the  men  he  discusses.  And  it  is  best 
for  him  to  let  them  tell  their  own  story,  adding  only  such 
comment  and  interpretation  as  he  hopes  will  make  their 
self-told  narrative  more  clear  and  connected. 

Even  then  he  often  fears  he  will  in  some  degree  mis- 
lead, for  his  space  is  limited,  and,  if  he  is  dealing  with  a 
period  rich  in  interest,  whose  story  has  formerly  been  told 
in  diverse  ways,  he  can  only  present  a  fragment  of  the 
material  at  his  command,  and  that  he  has  weighed.  More 
than  ever,  in  such  case,  does  he  see  the  need  of  choosing 
records  that  are  typical,  rather  than  exceptional.  His 
best  assurance  of  safety  lies  in  the  discovery  that  the 
illustrative  matter  so  chosen  by  him — from  the  laws,  sur- 
roundings, habits,  beliefs,  speech  and  deeds  of  the  men 
portrayed,  and  from  original  sources  widely  separated 
and  independent  of  one  another — is  consistent  and  inter- 
corroborative. 

It  must  not  be  understood,  in  visualizing  the  last 
pioneer  generation  of  America,  that  all  men  of  that  time— 
from  1800  to  about  1835 — lived  on  the  same  plane  of  social 
development.  Nothing  could  be  further  from  the  fact. 
There  were  then  American  men  and  women  of  culture 
limited  only  by  world-progress  up  to  that  interval.  Every 
city  and  nearly  every  town  held  them.  One  of  the  first 
activities  of  every  new  commonwealth  was  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  school  system  and  a  state  college.  But  that 
element  of  society  did  not  then — any  more  than  now— 
dominate  the  beliefs  or  acts,  or  swiftly  alter  the  circum- 
stances of  their  fellow  men.  We  are  dealing  with  society 

680 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

in  bulk.  It  is  not  unsafe  to  say  that  if  we  misjudge  the 
pioneer  population  here  considered,  there  is  more  likeli= 
hood  that  we  err  in  allotting  to  those  men  too  great  a 
degree  of  polish  and  advancement,  rather  than  in  con- 
sidering them  too  uncouth  and  distant,  as  compared  with 
the  generation  of  to-day. 

We  feel  that  men  who  thus  spoke  and  acted  in  their 
mutual  association  must  have  had  attributes  in  keeping 
with  the  deeds  and  utterances  disclosed — that  a  people 
wherein  such  qualities  were  revealed  as  matter-of-fact  ele- 
ments of  social  life  must  have  been,  at  least,  a  more  con- 
sistent generation  than  the  one  of  which  we,  amid  the  com- 
plexities of  present  days,  form  a  part.  And  if  we  are  right, 
and  those  men  were  consistent  in  so  far  as  their 
mental  attitude  and  intercourse  with  one  another  were 
concerned,  then  we  can  draw  with  reasonable  sureness  the 
chief  outlines  of  the  social  era  in  which  they  lived.  We 
find  ourselves,  like  the  comparative  anatomist,  building  up 
the  dominant  American  traits  of  the  period  as  those 
qualities  existed  in  the  regions  where  new  national  im- 
pulses found  their  birth. 

In  this  process  we  are  aided  by  our  knowledge  of 
much  that  had  gone  before.  The  Americans  of  the 
years  which  witnessed  the  critical  rush  into  turnpike,  canal 
and  railway  building  had  been  moulded  in  the  rough,  be- 
fore their  birth,  by  earlier  conditions  that  had  shaped  the 
fundamental  features  of  their  character.  The  lesser 
features  of  that  national  character — as  manifested  during 
the  period  in  question — were  shaped  by  those  new  needs 
in  which  the  people  found  themselves  for  the  first  time 
involved,  to  whose  solution  they  could  only  bring  inherited 
beliefs  and  methods,  reinforced  by  such  small  experience 
as  might  be  gained  day  by  day.  So,  in  hereafter  following 

681 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


202. — Canal  travel  in  the  Middle  West.     A  packet  boat  on  the  Miami  Canal,  in 

Ohio.     The  passengers  are  gathered  under  an  awning  that  has  been 

stretched  to  protect  them  from  the  sun  during  the  voyage. 

the  story  of  their  successes  and  failures  as  they  entered 
upon  the  important  activities  about  to  be  recited,  we  will 
be  aided  in  comprehending  their  aspirations  and  methods 
by  an  appreciation  of  the  human  qualities  out  of  which 
their  desires,  limitations  and  acts  necessarily  sprang. 

Some  of  those  qualities  have  at  least  been  suggested. 
The  Americans  of  the  epoch  between  1800  and  1835— 
during  which  time  definite  trend  was  given  to  present-day 
conditions  of  social  and  economic  affairs  throughout  the 
country — were  still  a  pioneer  people  in  thought  and  man- 
ner of  life.  They  had  conquered  a  Wilderness  of  one  sort, 
and  had  accumulated  much  learning  of  one  sort  in  so  do- 
ing. In  other  knowledge  they  were,  as  a  people,  unusually 
deficient.  Their  long,  unrelaxing  struggle  had  given  them 
no  time  to  delve  into  the  study  of  matters  not  in  some  way 
related  to  visible  and  immediate  needs.  All  their  immense 
fund  of  experience  was  of  specialized  character,  exquis- 

682 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

itely  fitted  to  its  purpose,  and  that  purpose  was  ceasing  to 
exist.  They  had  reached  the  Mississippi.1  The  eastern  part 
of  the  continent  at  the  commencement  of  the  century  was  a 
country  of  widely  scattered,  inert  and  immobile  population 
groups,  large  and  small,  between  which  slowly  trickled  a 
few  insignificant  streams  of  information,  commerce  and 
human  movement.  Then,  during  about  a  decade  of  time 
—from  1802  to  18152 — there  was  borne  in  upon  the  people 
a  comparatively  sudden  realization  that  the  contest  with 
nature  which  had  occupied  them  for  nearly  two  centuries 
was  practically  finished.  From  that  time  onward,  for  a 
score  of  years,  the  necessity  for  better  means  of  transporta- 
tion between  different  sections  was  the  new  and  principal 
subject  of  discussion. 

The  Wilderness — as  such — was  gone.  Much  of  it  had 
been  swept  bodily  away;  the  part  remaining  was  simply  a 
forest  and  an  obstacle.3  And  then,  behold!  there  loomed 
still  another  Wilderness  before  the  last  generation  of  the 
pioneers.  It  was  not  a  wilderness  of  nature,  but  one  of 
men's  own  making,  for  they  themselves  had  created  it.  It 
was  not  a  wilderness  of  material  form,  assailable  by  the 
brute  strength  of  the  ax,  but  one  that  needed  for  its  suc- 
cessful conquest  the  use  of  knowledge  and  much  wisdom. 
It  was  a  wilderness  composed  of  civilization's  necessities 
and  the  desire  of  men  to  mingle  with  one  another.  Its 
possible  pitfalls,  darkness  and  labyrinths  were  the  intangi- 
ble but  no  less  dangerous  elements  of  human  ignorance, 
avarice,  jealousy  and  mistaken  judgment. 

Possibly  no  other  people  were  ever  before  confronted 
with  a  common  task  demanding  for  its  best  performance 

1  Missouri  was  the  only  state  west  of  the  river  until  1836. 

2  Three   years   of   this   period   were   occupied   by   the   War   of   1812,   which    temporarily 
distracted  popular  thought   from  the  subject  of  better  transportation   facilities. 

3  Our  long  national  blindness  to  the  value  of  forests  as  a  national   economic  asset   is 
doubtless  due  to  the  fact  that  for  many  generations  we  were  smothered  in   riches  of  that 
sort. 

684 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

a  more  wise  conception  of  the  future,  and  a  more  unselfish 
consideration  of  the  general  welfare,  than  were  those 
Americans  who  first  keenly  realized  the  need  of  linking 
all  parts  of  their  vast  dominion  by  new  and  better  methods 
of  communication.  That  problem  was  the  second — and 
greatest — Wilderness  which  they  faced  in  their  work  of 
continental  conquest.  Upon  the  foresight  and  methods 
employed  in  their  new  undertaking  depended,  for  an  in- 
definite time  to  come,  the  material  conditions  under  which 
they  and  their  descendants  were  to  live  and  progress. 
Every  phase  of  the  nation's  life  was  thereafter  to  be 
shaped,  and  all  its  future  inhabitants  were  to  be  intimately 
affected  by  their  procedure  and  the  attitude  of  their 
chosen  servants.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  neither  the 
people  of  that  period  nor  their  governmental  representa- 
tives realized,  as  we  now  do,  the  truths  here  stated.  While 
following  the  developments  of  the  decisive  years  soon  to 
be  considered,  wherein  our  modern  transportation  system 
had  its  beginnings  and  took  definite  shape,  we  find 
numerous  occasions  on  which  the  future  economic  history 
of  the  nation  hung  in  the  balance  or  swerved  from  one 
course  to  another.1  And  at  times  we  are  almost  tempted  to 
wonder  whether  the  trend  of  events  was  not  affected  by 
some  determining  influence  now  beyond  tracing,  but 
whose  source  lay  in  the  selfish  foresight  of  a  few  rather 
than  in  any  honest  lack  of  foresight  by  the  many. 

The  principal  thought  that  needs  be  borne  in  mind 
while  following  the  creation  of  our  modern  transportation 
system  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  national  govern- 
ment, the  state  governments  and  private  activities,  is  that  it 
was  brought  into  being  by  a  pioneer  generation;  that 
definite  shape  was  assumed  by  the  system — between  1802 

1  As    is    the    case   to-day. 

685 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


ILLINOIS  AND  MICHIGAN  CANAL  PACKET  BOATS. 

Three  Daily  Lines  between  CHICAGO  and  LASALLE,  as  follows : 
Two  daily  lines  of  Mail  Passenger  Packets  leave  Chicago  and  Lasalle 
at  8  A.  M.  and  5  P.  M  ,  through  in  22  hours,  distance  10l)  miles,  fare  ©4  ; 
connecting  at  Chicago  with  the  Michigan  Central  Railroad  Line,  and 
Lake  line  of  steamers  to  Detroit  and  Buffalo  ;  at  Lasalle  with  a  daily 
line  of  Passenger  Steam  Pa'.-kets  for  St.  Louis  and  intermediate  places. 
Time  from  Chicago  to  St.  Louis,  from  two  to  three  days.  Also,  one 
daily  line  of  freight  packets  between  Chicago  and  Lasalle,  leaving 
Chicago  at  2  P.  M.,  and  Lasalle  at  7  P.  M.,  for  the  transportation  of 
passengers  and  light  freight  generally.  EMIGRANTS,  with  their  furni- 
ture, &c.,  fare  $3.  

CANAL  PACKET  ROUTE, 

FROM  CHICAGO  TO  LASALLE, 

VIA  ILLINOIS  AND  MICHIGAN  CANAL. 


STOPPING 
PLACES. 

Miles 

from 
Ctiic'ji<; 

Fare. 

STOPPING 
PLACES. 

Miles 
from 
Las.illc 

Fare. 

CHICAGO 

0 

$  cts. 

LASALLE 

0 

$  cts. 

Bridgeport 

4 

OTTAWA  . 

15 

60 

Summit    . 

12 

50 

Marsailles 

22 

1  00 

Desplaines 

21 

85 

MORRIS    . 

39 

1  60 

Athens 

25 

1  00 

AHX  Sable 

44 

1  75 

Lock  port  . 

33 

1  40 

Dresden   . 

46 

1  85 

JOLIET 

37 

1  50 

Kankakee  F 

ed 

er 

49 

2  00 

Chunahon 

48 

2  03 

Clmnahow 

52 

200 

Kankakee  Fe 

ed 

er 

51 

2  00 

JOLIET 

63 

2  50 

Dresden    . 

54 

2  25 

Lookport  . 

67 

2  75 

Anx  Sable 

56 

2  25 

Athens 

75 

3  00 

MORRIS    . 

61 

2  50 

Desplaines 

79 

3  20 

Marsailles 

73 

3  25 

Summit    . 

88 

3  50 

OTTAWA  . 

85 

3  50 

Bridgeport 

96 

3  85 

LASALLE 

• 

100 

4  00 

CHICAGO 

100 

4  00 

204. — Westernmost  work  of  the  canal-building  era.  The  Illinois  and  Michigan 
Canal  was  a  hundred  miles  long,  had  three  boats  a  day  in  each  direction, 
and  carried  passengers  over  the  whole  distance  in  22  hours,  at  a  cost  of 
four  dollars.  From  "Disturnell's  American  and  European  Railway  and 
Steamship  Guide:  1851." 

and  1835 — while  the  people  were  necessarily  untrained  in 
the  creative  and  administrative  work  they  were  perform- 
ing. The  only  weapons  they  possessed  for  use  in  at- 
tacking the  most  formidable  and  complex  wilderness 
that  man  can  encounter — the  problem  of  his  own  social 
and  economic  well-being — were  such  desires,  ideas  and 
methods  as  they  had  applied  to  ths  conquest  of  the 
least  formidable  variety  of  wilderness  and  to  their  own 

686 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

lives  while  so  occupied.  It  follows  that  their  first  at- 
titude toward  the  new  work  on  which  they  entered, 
and  the  things  they  did  during  the  early  stages  of  that 
work,  were  direct  manifestations  of  the  national  character 
as  it  then  existed.  Therefore  any  addition  to  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  men  of  those  days — however  small — is  of  ad- 
vantage in  understanding  their  purposes,  earnestness,  en- 
thusiasm, disputes,  shiftings,  wisdom,  blindness  and 
methods  of  procedure  during  a  time  whose  events  were 
freighted  with  such  significance  for  the  future. 

As  the  story  proceeds,  and  as  the  governmental  turn- 
pikes and  the  canals  and  railroads  appear  upon  the  stage 
of  progress,  we  will  be  able  to  discern  significant  oc- 
casions whereon  certain  attributes  of  the  national 
character  exercised  a  controlling  power  in  the  develop- 
ment of  events  either  for  good  or  ill.  Some  of  the 
qualities  of  mind  acquired  by  the  people  through  their 
long  battle  with  primitive  conditions  were  useful  in 
various  phases  of  their  new  undertaking,  and  were  ap- 
plied to  it  with  benefit.  Still  others  occasionally  wrought 
harm.  The  central  government's  determination  to  un- 
dertake important  social  and  industrial  tasks  for  all  the 
people  in  common — first  manifested,1  as  will  be  seen,  in 
connection  with  the  need  for  interstate  communication 
facilities  in  1802 — no  doubt  had  its  birth  in  the  human 
instinct  that  caused  all  members  of  a  wilderness  com- 
munity to  unite  in  erecting  the  cabin  of  a  newcomer  be- 
cause he  alone  could  not  build  it.  And  the  opposition  of 
individual  states  to  federated  governmental  purpose  — 
which  opposition  was  later  to  become  politically  known 
as  "The  State's  Rights  Doctrine"-  -  together  with  the  mu- 
tual jealousies  displayed  by  various  states  and  communi- 

1  The  carriage  of  mails  was  not  an  exception.     Private  companies  and  individuals  com- 
peted with  the  government  in  that  activity  until  after  1840. 

687 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

ties  in  connection  with  transportation  plans,  may  likewise 
have  had  its  ultimate  source  in  the  pioneer  American  con- 
viction that  each  man  was  his  own  sovereign.  So  he  was 
in  the  natural  forest,  but  not  afterward.  Those  days  had 
departed. 

There  were  three  prominent  qualities  of  the  national 


Mr   '  - 

*,">• 


205. — Even   travel   by   canal   packet   had    its   dangers   in   the   eyes   of  the   early 

cartoonist. 

character,  all  being  outgrowths  of  previous  pioneer  con- 
ditions, that  were  to  become  noticeable  in  the  years  wit- 
nessing the  birth  of  interstate  turnpikes,  canals  and 
railroads.  Those  qualities  were  inventiveness,  cock- 
sureness,  and  a  desire  for  argument,  The  facility  with 
which  the  American  pioneer  had  long  devised  expedients 

688 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

fitted  for  his  need  was  to  be  again  proved.  Through  the 
manifestation  of  his  versatility  in  that  respect  the  trans- 
portation system  created  by  him  at  once  assumed  its  own 
individuality  and  was  characterized,  from  the  first,  by 
many  devices  that  he  originated. 

The  popular  tendency  to  argument,  so  prominently 
displayed  in  connection  with  the  newly  realized  travel 
and  transportation  needs  of  society,  grew  out  of  the  long 
national  isolation  and  tendency  to  soliloquize  which  have 
already  been  mentioned. 

Those  human  qualities  that  had  been  necessary  for 
doing  what  had  already  been  done  by  the  American 
people  were  hardihood,  directness  of  purpose  and  dogged 
determination.  The  task  hitherto  performed  —  notwith- 
standing its  immensity  —  had  been  one  essentially  simple 
in  its  character.  The  knowledge  they  had  gained  during 
the  process  had  been  so  drilled  into  their  lives  that  it  had 
literally  become  a  part  of  them.  The  things  they  did  know 
they  knew  most  marvellously  well.  They  had  been  so 
long  isolated  with  regard  to  other  Caucasian  peoples  and 
exterior  information  that  they  had  gradually  arrived  at 
a  state  of  mind  which  virtually  ignored  the  existence  of 
other  conditions  than  their  own.  They  were  extraordi- 
narily wise  through  the  small  arc  of  their  own  experience, 
and  equally  ignorant  and  narrow-minded  throughout  the 
remainder  of  the  circle  of  human  life  and  work.  But 
since  the  remainder  of  that  circle  was  unknown  to  them, 
and  since  they  did  possess  a  conscious  mastery  of  their 
own  environment,  they  imagined  that  their  wisdom  might 
be  applied  with  propriety  and  profit  to  all  departments 
of  human  affairs.  Hence  the  phenomenon  of  American 
cock-sureness,  a  national  trait  whose  most  acute  symptoms 
are  perceptibly  subsiding  under  the  soothing  ministrations 

689 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

of  time,  and  which,  in  days  soon  to  come,  will  seemingly 
be  brought  so  far  under  control  as  to  warrant  a  firm  hope 
of  complete  recovery. 

They  had  not  hitherto  been  constantly  required  to 
apply  a  knowledge  already  obtained  to  the  solution  of 
new  and  radically  different  conditions  of  existence.  They 
were  in  a  rut,  so  far  as  methods  of  community  life  were 
concerned,  and  had  been  long  in  that  situation.  They  had 
not  discovered  that  ability  to  grasp  the  vital  principle 
governing  any  social  or  economic  condition,  coupled  with 
moral  and  mental  strength  to  sweep  away  outgrown  proc- 
esses connected  with  its  former  use  and  courage  to  apply 
the  principle  itself — divested  of  hampering  customs — in 
an  effort  toward  achieving  a  better  condition,  is  one  of 
the  highest  manifestations  of  a  people's  civilization. 

For  these  reasons  the  members  of  the  last  pioneer  gen- 
eration of  Americans  did  not  possess  the  qualifications 
which  would  have  enabled  them  to  attack  with  undiluted 
success  the  new  situation  faced  by  them.  Probably  no 
people  so  situated,  and  with  such  a  past,  could  have  done 
it.  The  wonder  is,  rather,  that  they  succeeded  so  well  as 
they  did.  Blind  in  large  measure  to  their  own  deficiencies, 
and  upheld  by  a  supreme  self-confidence  and  energy,  they 
set  about  the  work  which  was  theirs  to  do.  The  creation 
of  modern  turnpikes,  canals  and  railroads  began. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  NATIONAL  ROAD  —  THE  GOVERNMENT 
ADOPTS  THE  POLICY  OF  BUILDING  TRANSPORTATION 
FACILITIES  BY  PUBLIC  FUNDS  —  THE  OHIO  LAW  OF 
1802  —  ITS  SIGNIFICANCE  —  LATER  CONGRESSIONAL 
ACTS  PROVIDING  FOR  PUBLIC  ROADS  THROUGH  THE 
INTERIOR  —  CONSENT  OF  THE  STATES  FOR  THEIR 
CONSTRUCTION  NO  LONGER  ASKED  —  JEFFERSON  AND 
MADISON  FAVOR  THE  WORK  —  TWENTY  YEARS  OF 
UNIFORM  FEDERAL  ATTITUDE  —  MONROE'S  VETO  OF 
1822  —  ITS  POSSIBLE  RELATION  TO  GOVERNMENTAL 
RAILROAD  BUILDING  —  A  CONTROVERSY  ARISES  OVER 
THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  OF  THE  NATION  — 
HENRY  CLAY'S  VISION  OF  THE  FUTURE  —  HIS  TEM- 
PORARY VICTORY  —  PRESIDENT  JACKSON  REVERSES 

THE  COUNTRY'S  POLICY  AND  THE  NATIONAL  ROAD  is 

DIVIDED  AMONG  THE  STATES 

IT  was  said  in  a.  previous  chapter  that  the  inspiration 
for  the  building  of  the  important  governmental  traffic 
route  —  the  old  National  Road  —  came  from  the  West, 
arid  that  the  work  itself,  though  begun  in  the  East,1  was 
commenced  in  response  to  the  repeated  and  imperative  de- 
mands of  the  western  pioneers.  It  should  be  added  here 
that  the  realization  of  the  western  desire  was  long  delayed 
by  two  causes.  The  first  of  these  was  the  slowness  with 
which  that  part  of  the  highway  east  of  the  Ohio  River 
was  completed,  and  the  other  was  due  to  a  political  strug- 

1  As  a  westward  extension  of  existing  roads. 

691 


gle  arising  from  a  contention  that  the  Constitution  did  not 
confer  upon  the  central  government  the  power  to  under- 
take public  improvements  of  the  kind  in  progress. 

The  National  Road  —  or  Cumberland  Road,  as  it  was 
at  first  called  —  was  begun  in  Maryland  in  1808  and  did 
not  reach  the  border  of  Ohio  until  nine  years  afterward, 
in  1817.  The  first  congressional  act  looking  toward  its 
creation  was  passed  in  1802,  and  the  Federal  decision  to 
unite  the  Atlantic  coast  with  the  Mississippi  River  by  an 
overland  governmental  highway  was  reached  in  1806. 
But  it  was  not  until  1820  that  the  work  of  surveying  and 
locating  the  exact  position  of  ths  road  was  begun  through 
Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois,  and  not  until  1825  —  after  a 
national  political  campaign  fought  largely  over  the  con- 
stitutional question  just  mentioned  —  that  heavy  ap- 
propriations for  its  construction  through  the  interior  were 
made  and  the  enterprise  pushed  forward  in  that  part  of 
the  country. 

The  purpose  of  the  government  to  build  a  continuous 
road  from  the  East  to  the  Mississippi  —  as  that  pioneer 
intent  existed  before  structural  operations  began  on  any 
section  of  ths  route  —  is  shown  in  the  message  with  which 
President  Jefferson  submitted  to  Congress  a  statement  of 
the  course  chosen  for  the  road  in  the  East.  Under  date 
of  February  19,  1808,  he  said: 

".  .  .1  shall  pay  material  regard  to  the  interests  and  wishes  of 
the  populous  parts  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  and  to  a  future  and  convenient 
connection  with  the  road  which  is  to  lead  from  the  Indian  boundary 
near  Cincinnati,  by  Vincennes,  to  the  Mississippi  at  St.  Louis,  under 
authority  of  the  act  of  April  21,  1806.  In  this  way  we  may  accomplish 
a  continuous  and  advantageous  line  of  communication  from  the  seat 
of  the  General  Government  to  St.  Louis,  passing  through  several  very 
inter  eating,  pointy  to  the  Western  country." 

The  genesis  of  the  movement  which  resulted  in  the 

692 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


A  NEW  BEKTH. 

Candid  Landlady.     "  THE  FIRST  FROM  THE  TOP,  SIR,  is  THE   ONLY  BED  YACANT; 

BUT  YOU    HAVE    GOT    VERY    XICE   NEIGHBORS — ONE  GENTLEMAN   CHEWS,    BUT  THE  OTH- 
ERS   OIM.Y   SMOKE  !" 


206. — Cartoon  indicating  the  opinion  entertained  by  travellers  toward  the 
sleeping-bunk  system  so  long  offered  for  their  accommodation  by  barges, 
steamboats  and  canal  boats.  Boarding-house  landladies  did  not  equip  their 
bedrooms  in  that  manner,  but  the  artist  apparently  intended  to  suggest  that 
they  also  might  decide  to  adopt  the  prevailing  fashion. 

building  of  this  transportation  route  from  the  East  to 
the  interior  by  public  funds,  as  an  interstate  Federal  proj- 
ect for  the  benefit  of  the  entire  country,  is  to  be  found 
in  a  law  of  April  30,  1802,  entitled  "An  Act  to  Enable 
the  People  of  the  Eastern  Division  of  the  Territory 

693 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Northwest  of  the  River  Ohio  to  form  a  Constitution  and 
State  Government,  and  for  other  Purposes."  Section  7, 
Article  III,  of  the  Act  read: 

"That  one-twentieth  part  of  the  net  proceeds  of  the  land  lying  within 
the  said  State  [Ohio]  sold  by  Congress,  from  and  after  the  thirtieth  of 
June  next,  after  deducting  all  expenses  incident  to  the  same,  shall  be  ap- 
plied to  the  laying  out  and  making  public  roads,  leading  from  the 
navigable  waters  emptying  into  the  Atlantic,  to  the  Ohio,  to  the  said 
State,  and  through  the  same,  such  roads  to  be  laid  out  under  the  authority 
of  Congress,  with  the  consent  of  the  several  States  through  which  the 
road  shall  pass." 

Commonplace  as  this  language  appears,  the  para- 
graph just  quoted  contained  potentialities  hardly  sur- 
passed in  importance  by  those  of  any  other  law  enacted 
by  Congress  during  its  history.  For  although  the  purpose 
of  the  act  was  merely  the  making  of  a  turnpike,  it  affirmed 
the  government's  acquirement  of  powers  so  broad  in  their 
character  that  the  nation,  under  its  operation  and  the 
operation  of  later  laws  of  like  nature  and  purpose,  was 
afterward  brought  within  close  and  measurable  distance 
of  building  its  own  railroads  as  Federal  enterprises.  A 
consideration  of  the  circumstances  accompanying,  and 
developing  out  of  the  act,  will  indicate  its  character. 

The  present  constitutional  government  had  been  put 
in  operation  in  1789.  Vermont  had  entered  the  "Union" 
in  1791,  but  the  admission  of  that  state,  owing  to  her  loca- 
tion, had  not  brought  up  the  question  of  communication 
facilities  between  her  and  her  sister  commonwealths. 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee  became  states  in  1792  and  1796 
respectively,  but,  as  has  been  seen,  they  were  already 
united  with  the  East  by  usable  roads  created  through 
pioneer  enterprise.  With  Ohio  —  destined  to  be  fourth 
in  the  list  of  new  states  —  the  situation  was  different.  The 
northern  edge  of  her  territory  could  be  reached  by  way 

694 


w  r 
I* 

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g-3 


o     2. 


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B 

«.   <j 

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o  -o 

l-tl 

_  o 


?•$  ^^^^s?^'?^^?^  IN 
l^  1  f  f  i  i  f  1 1 1 1 1 -1 1 1 1 1 1 1  i  S 
^>  §•  I- 1.  s-  a:  1 1  i  1 1  <.^  §  i  s  1-1 1  &  s 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

of  the  Mohawk  valley  and  Lake  Erie,  and  her  southern 
border  could  be  attained  by  using  the  Ohio  River  or  the 
roads  leading  up  from  Kentucky.  There  remained,  how- 
ever, a  large  expanse  in  the  interior  to  which  there  was  no 
easy  access,  for,  though  two  crude  pioneer  roads  extended 
to  her  eastern  lands  they  offered  no  desirable  alternative 
to  prospective  emigrants  who  wished  to  avoid  the  water 
journey  and  at  the  same  time  wanted  to  reach  the  center 
of  the  new  country.  Nor  could  the  people  already  in 
southern  Ohio  move  through  the  interior  of  the  territory, 
or  go  back  and  forth  between  their  settlements  and  the 
East  without  making  the  wide  detour  into  Kentucky. 
Thus  placed,  Ohio  demanded  statehood  and  better  means 
of  intercourse  with  the  coast  region.  Her  remote  situa- 
tion, condition  and  needs  presented  a  new  social  and 
economic  problem  to  the  operating  machinery  of  the 
young  nation. 

The  act  of  1802  was  the  response  to  Ohio's  request. 
It  contained  one  provision  which  placed  the  territory  in 
a  peculiar  and  unprecedented  position,  for  the  paragraph 
known  as  Article  III  of  Section  7 — just  quoted — was  one 
of  several  offers  made  to  Ohio  in  these  words : 

"That  the  following  propositions  be,  and  the  same  are  hereby,  offered 
to  the  convention  of  the  eastern  State  of  said  territory,  when  formed,  for 
their  free  acceptance  or  rejection,  which,  if  accepted  by  the  convention, 
shall  be  obligatory  on  the  United  States." 

Thus  it  appears  that  on  the  first  occasion  when  real  need 
of  interstate  roads  and  transportation  facilities  arose  under 
the  Constitution  the  Federal  government,  through  Con- 
gress, declared  its  power  to  appropriate  public  money 
for  the  purpose  of  creating  such  interstate  traffic  routes; 
enunciated  the  principle  that  those  routes  be  laid  out 
under  the  authority  of  Congress;  and  seemingly  took  for 

696 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

granted  the  consent  of  any  affected  states.  It  went  fur- 
ther, for  it  laid  on  Ohio  the  alternative  of  accepting  or 
rejecting — as  part  of  her  basic  law — the  proposition  that 
the  central  government  had  power  to  build  a  transporta- 
tion route  through  her  jurisdiction.  Ohio  could  have  be- 
come a  state — under  the  phraseology  of  the  enabling  act- 
even  though  she  had  rejected  the  proposition.  But  she 
did  not;  she  accepted  it,  and  so  entered  the  Union  on  the 
basis  of  an  acknowledgment  that  the  Federal  administra- 
tion had  authority  to  build  traffic  routes  in  and  through 
the  state,  and  with  knowledge  that  such  action  would 
be  taken. 

Ohio  became  a  state  under  the  act  of  1802,  and  in 
due  course  of  time  a  Congressional  committee,  to  which 
the  subject  of  the  planned  interstate  road  had  been  re- 
ferred, made  a  report1  recommending  that  the  eastern 
section  of  the  route  extend  from  Cumberland,  in  Mary- 
land, to  Wheeling,  in  Virginia.  In  the  report  it  was 
stated,  among  other  things,  that 

"They  [the  committee]  suppose  that  to  take  the  proper  measures  for 
carrying  into  effect  the  section  of  the  law  respecting  a  road  or  roads  to 
the  State  of  Ohio,  is  a  duty  imposed  upon  Congress  by  the  law  itself,  and 
that  a  sense  of  duty  will  always  be  sufficient  to  insure  the  passage  of  the 
bill  now  offered  to  the  Senate.  To  enlarge  upon  the  highly  important 
considerations  of  cementing  the  union  of  our  citizens  located  on  the 
Western  waters  with  those  of  the  Atlantic  states  would  be  an  indelicacy 
offered  to  the  understanding  of  the  body  to  whom  this  report  is  ad- 
dressed, as  it  might  seem  to  distrust  them." 

The  bill  providing  for  the  building  of  a  Federal  in- 
terstate highway  was  passed  by  Congress,  and  approved 
by  President  Jefferson  on  March  29,  1 806.  The  four  states 
of  Maryland,  Virginia,  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  through 
which  it  was  to  extend,  duly  communicated  to  the  gov- 

1  On  December  19,  1805.  Senate  Document  Number  195. — Ninth  Congress;  First 
Session. 

697 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

ernment  their  consent1  as  suggested  in  the  act  of  1802, 
and  work  was  begun. 

Indiana  was  the  next  territory  lying  across  the  pro- 
jected line  of  the  government's  road  which  sought  state- 
hood and  better  transportation  connections  with  the  East. 
The  law  admitting  her  to  the  Union  was  dated  April 
19,  1816,  and  Section  6,  of  Article  III — after  confronting 
her  with  the  identical  alternative  faced  by  Ohio — read: 

"That  five  per  cent,  of  the  net  proceeds  of  lands  lying  within  the 
said  territory,  and  which  shall  be  sold  .  .  .  from  and  after  the 
first  day  of  December  next,  after  deducting  all  expenses  incident  to  the 
same,  shall  be  reserved  for  making  public  roads  and  canals,  of  which 
three-fifths  shall  be  applied  to  those  objects  within  the  said  State,  under 
the  direction  of  the  Legislature  thereof,  and  two-fifths2  to  the  making 
of  a  road  or  roads  leading  to  the  said  State  under  the  direction  of 
Congress." 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  legislation  differs  from 
the  law  dealing  with  Ohio  in  an  important  respect  which 
suggests  that  the  power  of  the  general  government  to  con- 
struct interstate  traffic  facilities  without  regard  to  the 
attitude  of  the  states  had  by  that  time  ceased  to  be  a 
questionable  matter  even  to  the  extent  fairly  to  be  in- 
ferred from  the  act  of  1802.  For  the  Congress  announces 
an  intention  to  build  a  road  or  roads  leading  toward 
Indiana  without  reference  to  the  consent  of  any  states 
through  which  it  or  they  might  pass. 

Two  years  afterward  Illinois  was  authorized  to  erect 
a  state  government,3  and  again  did  Section  6  of  Article 
III — after  the  usual  alternative  and  land-sale  prelim- 
inaries— read: 

"Two-fifths  to  be  disbursed,  under  the  direction  of  Congress,   in 

1  Virginia  and   Maryland  consented   later  in   1806  and   Pennsylvania  in   April   of  1807. 
Ohio's   consent   was   given   in   her  acceptance    of   the   act   as   the   basis   of   her   constitution. 

2  In   1803   a  supplementary   law   in   relation   to   Ohio   had  been   passed  apportioning  the 
Ohio    money    in   a    similar   ratio,    so    that   three-fifths    of   it,   or   three   per   cent.,   should    be 
devoted  to  building  roads  within  the  state,  and  two  per  cent,  to  the  road  or  roads  leading 
to   the   state. 

3  The  date  of  the  Act  was  April   18,   1818. 

698 


0    0* 
O    (1> 

" 


J 


making  roads  leading  to  the  state;  the  residue  to  be  appropriated,  by 
the  Legislature  of  the  State,  for  the  encouragement  of  learning.  ..." 

By  the  terms  of  this  law,  a  road  leading  to  Illinois 
through  Indiana  could  not  come  under  the  supervision  of 
the  Indiana  legislature,  but  was  placed  "under  the  direc- 
tion of  Congress."  This  feature  of  the  act,  when  con- 
sidered in  connection  with  the  Indiana  law  of  1816,  may 
indicate  the  existence  of  a  distinction,  at  that  time,  between 
the  interstate  highway  in  process  of  creation  and  other 
roads  local  in  character.  Again  was  there  no  reference 
to  the  consent  of  such  states  as  might  be  traversed  by  the 
roads  which  Congress  announced  would  be  built  by  the 
government  toward  Illinois.  In  1820  Missouri's  entrance 
to  the  Union  was  authorized,1  and  the  familiar  Section  6 
of  Article  III  in  her  case  read  : 

"Five  per  cent.  .  .  .  shall  be  reserved  for  making  public  roads 
and  canals,  of  which  three-fifths  shall  be  applied  to  those  objects  within 
the  State,  under  the  direction  of  the  Legislature  thereof;  and  the  other 
two-fifths  in  defraying,  under  the  direction  of  Congress,  the  expenses 
to  be  incurred  in  making  a  road  or  roads,  canal  or  canals,  leading  to  the 
said  State." 

Two  months  afterward2  the  national  lawmakers  made 
provision  for  surveying  the  route  to  be  followed  by  the 
Cumberland  Road  in  its  future  extension  from  Wheel- 
ing to  the  Mississippi  River.  By  the  year  1817  the 
thoroughfare  was  in  use  to  Wheeling,  and  from  1802 
until  the  date  named  fourteen  governmental  acts  had  been 
placed  on  the  statute  books  in  connection  with  its  creation, 
after  being  formulated  by  ten  Congresses  and  signed 
by  three  Presidents  during  five  Presidential  terms. 

We  see  in  these  events,  then,  the  birth,  establishment 
and  maintenance  of  a  continuous  Federal  policy  having 

1  The  date  of  the  Act  was  March   6,   and  it  contained  the  same  chance  to  accept  or 
reject   the   road  proposition. 

2  By  Act  of   May   15,   1820. 

700 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

for  its  object  the  building  of  a  transportation  route  by 
public  funds  for  the  general  welfare.  At  the  inception 
of  the  plan,  in  1802,  the  government  seemingly  took  for 
granted  the  consent  of  some  states  to  its  operations  within 
their  limits  and  received  their  consent,  msanwhile  offer- 
ing to  a  new  state  the  chance  to  reject  the  largs  Federal 
power  implied.  After  that  time,  during  an  interval  of 
twenty  years,  the  general  government  no  longer  directly 
requested  state  consent  for  its  traffic-route  enterprises  but, 
as  occasion  arose,  gave  territories  the  choice  that  has  been 
defined.  The  later  acts  of  the  series  were  weightier  than 
the  earlier  ones  in  their  suggestion  of  Federal  power, 
sines  neither  in  providing  for  roads  leading  to  Illinois, 
nor  in  allotting  governmental  funds  for  a  road  or  roads 
to  Missouri,  was  Illinois  or  its  legislature  mentioned. 

Two  other  features  contained  in  this  series  of  laws 
call  for  attention.  They  indicate  that  Congress  thought 
of  the  possibility  of  building  more  than  one  road  if 
it  so  chose,  and  they  show  that  the  government  did  not 
consider  itself  limited  to  turnpikes  as  the  only  constituent 
parts  of  the  Federal  transportation  system,  but  that  it 
believed  itself  able  to  create  other  kinds  of  traffic  routes, 
such  as  canals,  if  it  saw  fit  to  do  so.  By  the  year  1820 
the  government  was  apparently  established  in  a  position 
-  based  on  public  opinion  and  approved  as  indicated  by 
the  action  of  the  people's  legislative  representatives  and 
executives  —  that  would  have  permitted  it,  without  the 
alteration  of  its  policy  or  of  any  other  element  in  the 
situation,  to  build  railways  just  as  it  was  already  building 
an  interstate  roadway  or  just  as  it  proposed  to  build  canals 
if  it  so  decided. 

Then  befell  an  action  by  President  Monroe  the  first 
effect  of  which  was  to  precipitate  a  violent  political  and 

701 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

economic  controversy  over  the  government's  attitude  to- 
ward interstate  transportation  facilities,  and  whose  ulti- 
mate result  was  a  reversal  of  the  established  Federal 
policy  regarding  that  subject  and  an  abandonment  of  the 
National  Road  as  a  national  undertaking.  On  May  4, 
1822,  he  vetoed  an  act  "for  the  preservation  and  repair 
of  the  Cumberland  Road,"  saying  that  he  did  so  "under 
a  conviction  that  Congress  do  not  possess  the  power,  un- 
der the  Constitution,  to  pass  such  a  law."  His  message 
went  on  to  say : 

"A  power  to  establish  turnpikes,  with  gates  and  tolls,  and  to  enforce 
the  collection  of  tolls  by  penalties,  implies  a  power  to  adopt  and  execute 
a  complete  system  of  internal  improvements.  ...  A  right  to 
legislate  for  one  of  these  purposes  is  a  right  to  legislate  for  the  others. 
It  is  a  complete  right  of  jurisdiction  and  sovereignty  for  all  the  purposes 
of  internal  improvement,  and  not  merely  the  right  of  applying  money 
under  the  power  vested  in  Congress  to  make  appropriations  (under 
which  power,  with  the  consent  of  the  States  through  which  the  road 
passes,  the  work  was  originally  commenced,  and  has  been  so  far  ex- 
ecuted). I  am  of  opinion  that  Congress  do  not  possess  this  power.  ..." 

It  is  not  likely  that  the  President,  when  here  speaking 
of  the  work  "so  far  executed,"  referred  to  the  manual  labor 
then  in  progress  as  an  outcome  of  the  governmental  man- 
dates. He  was  discussing  national  prerogatives  and 
policy.  But  if  he  did  have  in  mind  that  phase  of  the  un- 
dertaking when  he  said  the  work  so  far  executed  had  been 
done  "with  the  consent  of  the  states  through  which  the 
road  passes,"  it  is  only  needful  to  remember  that,  for  the 
two  years  preceding,  part  of  the  human  labor  involved  on 
the  roadway  had  been  performed  in  the  jurisdictions  of 
Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois,  in  connection  with  surveying 
and  laying  out  the  thoroughfare.  That  wrork  was  being 
done  under  the  direction  of  Congress,  at  the  expense  of 
the  national  treasury.  When  Monroe  made  his  statement 
concerning  the  relationship  of  the  states  to  the  work  so 

702 


H 


- 


O"  C/3 

I|I 

ft  3  o 


OQ    -• 

•»  3 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

far  executed,  the  Federal  government  had  created  by 
legislation  a  highway  extending  from  Maryland  to  Mis- 
souri; had  provided  financial  means  for  its  progress 
throughout  its  length;  had  completed  much  of  it,  and  was 
at  public  cost  fixing  its  exact  course  through  that  part 
of  its  extent  still  unfinished.  And  the  government  had 
not,  for  sixteen  years,  directly  asked  the  consent  of  any 
state  crossed  by  the  work  or  had  its  action  in  the  matter 
challenged  by  any  state  concerned.1  The  congressional 
representatives  of  all  the  states  had  formulated  the  acts 
by  which  those  things  were  done.  Three  laws  providing 
for  further  road  building  on  the  highway  between  the 
Ohio  and  Mississippi  Rivers,  under  the  direction  of  Con- 
gress, had  been  passed  during  Monroe's  administration 
and  signed  by  him. 

From  that  time  the  broad  subject  of  Federal  rights 
and  duties  in  matters  affecting  the  public  irrespective  of 
state  boundaries  became  in  much  larger  degree  a  shuttle- 
cock of  politics  in  an  era  of  increasingly  violent  partisan- 
ship. Party  strategy  and  the  possibility  of  personal  or 
corporate  advantage  gradually  became  paramount  to  other 
considerations  in  determining  the  economic  course  of  the 
country. 

Monroe,  indeed,  was  right  in  his  definition  of  the 
significance  contained  in  the  attitude  so  long  held  by  the 
nation.  The  series  of  related  acts  passed  by  the  legislative 
branch  of  the  government,  beginning  in  1802  and  ending 
with  the  one  vetoed  by  him  twenty  years  later,  did  imply, 
as  he  said,  "a  power  to  adopt  and  execute  a  complete 
system  of  internal  improvements." 

Thus  close  did  the  country  come  to  the  building  and 

1  The  consents  of  Virginia,  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  had  not  been  embodied  in 
their  basic  laws,  and  could  have  been  withdrawn,  though  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that 
the  rest  of  the  country  would  have  stopped  the  work  in  that  event. 

704 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

ownership  of  its  railways  from  the  beginning.  Within 
three  years  after  Monroe's  veto  of  1822  the  first  railway 
of  the  world  designed  as  a  public  utility1  was  in  opera- 
tion; within  four  years  thereafter  the  probable  value  of 
railroads  as  a  method  of  travel  and  transportation  was 
the  principal  subject  of  economic  discussion  in  America; 
and  one  year  afterward  American  state  charters  were 
being  asked  and  granted  for  the  construction  of  railways 
by  private  corporations.  By  that  time  the  government 
would  have  found  itself  face  to  face  with  the  ques- 
tion of  building  railroads  as  public  enterprises,  and  —  if 
the  new  transportation  method  proved  advantageous  - 
might  have  entered  naturally  and  logically  into  their 
creation  under  the  policy  it  had  pursued  since  1802.  Only 
by  that  action  could  it  have  kept  abreast  of  progress  and 
the  needs  of  the  people  in  the  one  matter  then  of  supremest 
importance  to  them.  President  Monroe's  action  chal- 
lenged Federal  right  to  compete  with  corporate  enter- 
prise in  supplying  the  people  with  those  public  utilities 
most  requisite  for  their  general  welfare  and  daily  use.  No 
other  method  than  that  could  seemingly  have  diverted  the 
country  from  its  established  policy  to  another  and  radically 
different  position  which  permitted  the  country's  most  im- 
portant interstate  and  national  highways  to  become 
projects  of  corporate  creation,  financial  speculation  and 
eventual  private  fortune-building  accomplished  to  an  un- 
known degree  by  illegitimate  inflation  of  capital  and 
service  charges  fixed  in  accordance  therewith. 

The  juxtaposition  of  Monroe's  veto  and  the  appearance 
of  the  first  railroads  was  a  fateful  coincidence.  The 
significance  of  the  American  government's  attitude  from 
1802  to  1822;  its  later  logical  result  if  uninterrupted;  the 

1  The  Stockton  and  Darlington  road,  in  England. 

705 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

date  of  the  appearance  of  railways;  the  clouding  of 
American  pioneer  purpose  by  argument  over  the  technical 
legality  of  that  purpose;  and  the  effect  produced  by 
diverting  the  government's  activity  from  its  previous  chan- 
nel, are  matters  possessing  a  close  relationship.  If  the 
radical  alteration  in  the  national  policy  at  a  most  critical 
time  of  American  economic  history  was  not  brought  about 
by  any  contemporaneous  foresight  of  its  enormous  conse- 
quences, then  the  chain  of  events  here  outlined  does  indeed 
indicate  how  profoundly  the  affairs  of  men  are  sometimes 
affected  by  the  whims  of  chance. 

The  only  specific  Constitutional  authorization  bear- 
ing upon  the  point  at  issue  so  strongly  emphasized  by 
Monroe  was  the  clause  which  provides  that  Congress 
shall  have  the  power  "to  establish  Post  Offices  and  Post 
Roads."  "Strict  constructionists"  denied  that  this  gave 
the  general  government  a  right  to  undertake  such  work 
as  the  building  of  interstate  communication  facilities. 
"Broad  constructionists"  of  the  Hamiltonian  school  met 
the  argument  with  their  doctrine  of  "implied  powers," 
and  pointing  to  the  "general  welfare"  clause  and  that 
other  "elastic  clause"  which  confers  upon  Congress  the 
right  "to  make  all  Laws  which  shall  be  necessary  and 
proper  for  carrying  into  Execution  the  foregoing 
Powers,"  contended  that  the  authority  of  the  central 
government  was  ample  for  such  internal  improvements. 

It  should  not  be  understood  that  the  attitude  of  Con- 
gress toward  the  Cumberland  Road  was  always  uniform, 
even  before  Monroe's  veto  of  1822,  or  that  the  national 
legislature  gave  a  continuous  measure  of  unanimous  ap- 
proval to  all  other  plans  of  internal  improvement.  That 
was  not  the  case.  Sometimes  a  Congress  would  be  elected 
in  which  the  preponderance  of  sentiment  was  so  strongly 

706 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

in  favor  of  such  general  welfare  work  that  the  bills  in 
behalf  of  the  government's  road  would  be  decisively 
passed  as  a  matter  of  course.  At  other  times  a  Congress 
would  be  returned  whose  membership  was  more  equally 
divided  with  regard  to  the  wisdom  or  constitutional  pro- 
priety of  the  procedure  on  which  the  country  had  em- 
barked, and  then  there  would  be  long  —  often  sharp  and 
earnest — debates  on  the  subject,  and  the  interstate  road 
bill  would  be  temporarily  beaten,  or  carried  by  a  smaller 
majority  than  usual.  But  the  general  trend  of  thought 
was  always  in  favor  of  the  project,  and  —  even  after  it 
had  been  made  a  subject  of  factional  argument  and  a 
pawn  in  the  struggle  for  political  supremacy  —  the  only 
substantial  opposition  to  it  was  outwardly  based  on  doubt 
respecting  the  constitutional  power  of  the  government 
to  create  such  a  thoroughfare  as  a  national  undertaking. 
Monroe's  predecessor  —  Madison  —  had  been  one  of 
those  who  favored  the  creation  of  an  interstate  transporta- 
tion system  by  Federal  authority  and  ths  use  of  treasury 
funds,  even  though  he  was  at  times  doubtful  whether  the 
Constitution  contained  provisions  specific  enough  to  war- 
rant the  performance.  But  his  doubt  on  the  point  was 
evidently  not  sufficiently  marked  to  influence  him  against 
the  Cumberland  Road  project,  for  during  his  presidency 
he  signed  seven  bills  authorizing  the  expenditure  of 
money  for  its  building.  His  attitude  toward  govern- 
mental participation  in  highway  and  canal  construction 
was  shown  in  his  annual  message  of  December  5,  1815, 
when  he  discussed  the  subject  in  these  words: 

"Among  the  means  of  advancing  the  public  interest,  the  occasion  is 
a  proper  one  for  rousing  the  attention  of  Congress  to  the  great  impor- 
tance of  establishing  throughout  our  country  the  roads  and  canals  which 
can  best  be  executed  under  the  national  authority.  No  objects  within 
the  circle  of  political  economies  so  richly  repay  the  expense  bestowed  upon 

707 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

them.  There  are  none  the  utility  of  which  is  more  universally  ascertained 
and  acknowledged;  none  that  do  more  honor  to  the  Government.  .  .  . 
Nor  is  there  any  country  which  presents  a  field  where  nature  invites 
more  the  art  of  man  to  complete  her  own  work  for  their  accommoda- 
tion and  benefit.  The  considerations  are  strengthened,  moreover,  by  the 
political  effect  of  these  facilities  for  intercommunication  and  bringing 
and  binding  more  closely  together  the  various  parts  of  our  extended 
confederacy. 

"Whilst  the  states,  individually,  with  a  laudable  enterprise  and  emula- 
tion, avail  themselves  of  their  local  advantages  by  new  roads,  by 
navigable  canals  and  by  improving  the  streams  susceptible  of  navigation, 
the  general  government  is  the  more  urged  to  similar  undertakings  requir- 
ing a  national  jurisdiction  and  national  means,  by  the  prospect  of  thus 
systematically  completing  so  inestimable  a  work.  And  it  is  a  happy 
reflection  that  any  defect  of  constitutional  authority  which  may  be 
encountered  can  be  supplied  in  the  mode  which  the  Constitution  itself 
has  providentially  pointed  out."1 

Jefferson  had  looked  with  favor  on  Federal  participa- 
tion in  the  making  of  a  national  transportation  system, 
for  he  had  approved  the  basic  law  of  1802  that 
provided  for  a  road  to  Ohio.  It  was  also  during  his 
presidency,  and  by  his  financial  secretary,  Gallatin,  that 
the  plan  for  the  Cumberland  Road  was  proposed  as  an 
administration  measure.  The  construction  work  on  it 
was  begun  by  Jefferson  after  he  had  asked  and  received 
the  consent  of  the  first  states  involved. 

On  at  least  one  occasion,  namely  in  1824,  the  national 
campaign  for  the  presidency  was  fought  largely  on  the 
issue  of  the  government's  constitutional  right  to  build 
roads  and  canals.  Despite  the  obvious  benefit  to  the 
country  of  the  construction  of  such  an  East  and  West 
interstate  highway  as  a  national  road,  the  thoroughfare 
in  question  could  only  occupy  a  certain  specific  location, 

1  On  the  day  before  retiring  from  office  he  did  veto  one  bill  setting  aside  money 
received  by  the  government  from  the  second  United  States  Bank  and  the  proceeds  of 
the  bank  shares  held  by  the  government,  for  the  purpose  of  constructing  roads  and  canals. 
In  his  veto  message  he  said:  "The  power  to  regulate  commerce  among  the  several  states 
cannot  include  a  power  to  construct  roads  and  canals,  and  to  improve  the  navigation  of 
water  courses,  in  order  to  facilitate,  promote,  and  secure  such  a  commerce,  without  a 
latitude  of  construction  departing  from  the  ordinary  import  of  the  terms." 

Those  who  advocated  such  work,  however,  did  not  base  their  support  of  it  on  the 
constitutional  power  to  regulate  commerce  between  the  states. 

708 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

and  some  of  its  benefits,  in  consequence,  were  naturally 
more  apparent  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  highway 
than  in  regions  remote  from  it.  This  inevitable  condi- 
tion aroused  the  jealousy  of  the  states  and  districts  it  did 
not  penetrate  —  or  at  least  the  jealousy  of  various  political 
leaders  in  those  localities.  The  people  as  a  whole  were 
in  favor  of  the  enterprise,  whereas  some  public  men  both 
of  large  and  petty  importance  wrere  willing  it  should  be 
discontinued — provided  its  further  extension  brought 
no  personal  benefit  to  them  —  rather  than  behold  the 
country  reap  advantages  from  its  existence.  The  use  of 
political  warfare  over  an  economic  policy  which  con- 
tained no  element  of  partisanship  or  incentive  thereto 
was  but  a  further  manifestation  of  a  long  existing  con- 
dition. Again  did  the  masses  of  the  people  have  clearer 
vision  than  their  ostensible  leaders.  In  matters  touching 
the  economic  and  social  well-being  of  a  nation  its  citizens 
prefer  to  turn  unheeding  from  any  advice  or  plea  to 
which  suspicion  of  self-interest  may  attach,  and  decide  the 
question  in  the  light  of  experience  gained  by  themselves 
or  others,  according  to  their  best  understanding.  If 
instead  they  permit  themselves  to  be  inflamed  by  appeals 
to  partisanship  they  lose  in  corresponding  degree  the 
faculty  of  judgment  and  more  easily  become  the  dupes 
of  designing  men.  An  error  of  popular  judgment  at- 
tributable to  no  other  cause  than  lack  of  knowledge  or 
careless  thought  is  reasonably  sure  of  speedy  detection 
and  correction,  whereas  the  public  error  born  of  pas- 
sion and  nurtured  by  partisanship  breeds  still  further 
passion  and  more  error  when  its  victims  recognize  their 
situation  and  seek  to  escape  from  its  effects. 

The  popular  champion  of  the  westward  extension  of 
the  Cumberland  Road  was  Henry  Clay.     He  advocated 

709 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

the  measure  as  one  national  in  its  character,  beneficial 
to  all  the  country  and  not  merely  to  the  West.  He 
pointed  out  that  not  one  of  the  three  states  in  which  were 
contained  the  entire  extent  of  the  original  Cumberland 
Road  —  nor  all  of  them  together  —  would  of  their  own 
volition  have  created  that  highway;  that  two  of  them, 
in  fact,  afterward  tried  for  a  short  time  to  place  impedi- 
ments in  the  way  of  its  completion.  During  the  cam- 
paign of  1824,  as  part  of  an  address  advocating  the  par- 
ticipation of  the  central  government  in  the  creation  of 
improved  transportation  facilities,  he  thus  gave  utterance 
to  his  vision  of  the  future:1 

"The  gentleman  from  Virginia  sought  to  alarm  us  by  the  awful  em- 
phasis by  which  he  stated  the  total  extent  of  post  road  in  the  Union. 
'Eighty  thousand  miles  of  post  road!'  exclaims  the  gentleman;  'and  will 
you  assert  for  the  general  government's  jurisdiction  and  erect  turnpikes 
at  such  an  immense  distance?'  Not  to-day,  nor  to-morrow,  but  this 
government  is  to  last,  I  trust,  forever;  we  may  at  least  hope  it  will  endure 
until  the  wave  of  population,  cultivation,  and  intelligence  shall  have 
washed  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  mingled  with  the  Pacific.  And  may 
we  not  also  hope  that  the  day  will  arrive  when  the  improvements  and 
comforts  to  social  life  shall  spread  over  the  vast  area  of  this  con- 
tinent? .  .  .  It  is  a  peculiar  delight  to  me  to  look  forward  to  the 
proud  and  happy  period,  distant  as  it  may  be,  wThen  circulation  and  asso- 
ciation between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  and  the  Mexican  Gulf  shall 
be  as  free  and  perfect  as  they  are  at  this  moment  in  England  or  in  any 
other  country  of  the  globe." 

Clay  was  at  last  temporarily  victorious.  Congress 
passed  a  law  appropriating  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars  for  further  work  on  an  extension  of  the  road 
through  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois,  and  directing  the 
completion  of  the  survey  ordered  by  the  act  of  May  15, 
1820.  This  act  was  approved  and  signed  by  Monroe 
on  March  3,  1825,  as  one  of  his  last  Presidential  duties. 
It  was  the  first  piece  of  legislation  in  behalf  of  the  Na- 

1  In  his  speech  of  January  31.  Text  from  the  "Western  Censor"  (Indianapolis,  Ind.) 
of  March  22,  1824. 

710 


210. — Two  ancestors  of  the  twentieth-century  motor-car.  David  Gordon's  patent 
was  dated  1824.  He  thought  it  was  necessary  to  imitate  the  action  of  horses' 
feet,  and  his  car  was  propelled  by  mechanical  legs.  The  other  carriage 
was  made  by  Horace  Gurney,  about  1848,  and  had  a  speed  of  8 1/2  miles 
an  hour  on  common  roads. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

tional  Road  west  of  Wheeling  that  had  been  enacted  since 
Monroe,  in  his  veto  of  1822,  had  brought  forward  in 
acute  form  the  subject  of  the  government's  constitutional 
right  to  do  the  work.  The  building  of  the  turnpike  then 
went  ahead,  and  during  John  Quincy  Adams'  administra- 
tion—  between  1825  and  1829  —  that  Executive  ap- 
proved eight  bills  carrying  appropriations  aggregating 
nearly  three-quarters  of  a  million  dollars  for  maintaining 
the  highway  and  extending  it  westward. 

But  the  question  previously  raised  by  Monroe  —  and 
especially  his  clear  definition  of  the  tremendous  signifi- 
cance contained  in  the  government's  previous  policy  — 
was  having  its  effect.  By  the  time  Jackson  took  office, 
in  1829,  two  conditions  were  clearly  visible.  Rail- 
roads were  in  actual  process  of  construction,  for  one 
thing;  and  the  doctrine  that  the  central  government  had 
no  power  in  or  over  a  state  except  as  specifically  and  un- 
mistakably set  forth  by  the  Constitution  was  in  the 
ascendency.  These  two  factors  in  the  national  life- 
one  economic  and  the  other  political — -interacted  on  each 
other,  and  both  influenced  the  government's  attitude 
toward  the  National  Road.  Jackson  himself  was  a 
"state's  rights"  man  in  the  broad  sense  of  the  term,  and  his 
opinions  on  that  subject  were  in  harmony  with  those  of 
the  party  which  had  placed  him  in  power.  He  did  not 
permit  his  belief  to  affect  his  financial  support  of  the 
National  Road,  for  during  the  eight  years  of  his  Presi- 
dency he  approved  ten  laws  appropriating  nearly  three 
and  three-quarter  millions  of  dollars  for  that  enterprise, 
but  he  did  oppose  Federal  ownership  and  control  of  the 
highway,  and  during  his  administration  the  several  sec- 
tions of  the  road  were  transferred  to  those  states  within 
whose  borders  they  lay. 

712 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Thus,  at  the  commencement  of  the  railway  era,  the 
existing  national  policy  which  if  continued  could  have 
resulted  in  Federal  building  of  railroads  was  reversed, 
and  it  naturally  followed  that  administrative  endorse- 
ment for  any  proposals  for  governmental  creation  of 
the  new  metal  highways  was  impossible  while  Jackson  re- 
mained the  chief  executive.  Those  were  the  critical  years 
during  which  the  economic  method  of  railroad  building 
in  America  was  decided. 

Although  Jackson's  natural  habit  of  mind  was  doubt- 
less in  harmony  with  the  position  he  took  toward  the 
National  Road,  his  attitude  in  that  matter  and  kindred 
questions  was  very  possibly  strengthened  by  a  certain  situ- 
ation encountered  by  him  during  the  first  part  of  his 
Presidency.  The  earlier  governmental  adoption  of  a 
policy  that  Federal  resources  might  be  constitutionally 
used  in  the  creation  of  public  thoroughfares  had  un- 
covered a  rich  stream  of  popular  avarice.  It  had  resulted 
in  a  widespread  effort  to  obtain  national  assistance  not 
only  for  important  and  necessary  projects,  but  for  a  multi- 
tude of  enterprises  entirely  local  in  character  and  which 
had  no  justifiable  claim  for  the  assistance  of  the  central 
treasury.  Instead  of  formulating  a  clear-cut,  carefully 
planned  and  reasonable  scheme  for  developmental  work 
under  the  adopted  policy,  Congress  had  gradually  be- 
come the  theater  of  a  mad  scramble  in  which  nearly  all 
states  and  sections  of  states  took  part,  in  an  endeavor  to 
obtain  public  money  for  small,  unimportant  and  non- 
national  enterprises.  This  tendency  had  become  especially 
evident  during  the  years  from  1825  to  1829,  in  which 
period  the  need  of  improved  transportation  was  a  subject 
uppermost  in  public  thought.  Hundreds  of  these  schemes 
were  doubtless  devised  without  expectation  of  their  value 

713 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

or  permanent  success  as  economic  undertakings,  but  in 
the  hope  that  the  physical  construction  called  for  by  them 
would  bring  rich  profits  to  their  projectors. 

By  the  year  1830  bills  had  appeared  in  Congress  for 
the  proposed  construction  of  isolated  and  disconnected 
turnpikes,  canals,  railroads  and  similar  enterprises  whose 
completion  would  have  required  more  than  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty  millions  of  dollars.  This  state  of  affairs 
made  it  apparent  that  a  rigid  line  must  be  drawn  which 
would  effectively  exclude  non-national  public  works  from 
participation  in  national  support,  or  else  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment would  be  compelled  to  abandon  its  position  that 
the  investment  of  treasury  funds  in  such  construction  was 
warranted  by  the  Constitution.  The  question  thus  pre- 
sented became  an  important  issue  throughout  the  country, 
and  in  1830  President  Jackson  took  occasion,  on  the  pres- 
entation to  him  of  a  bill  which  had  been  passed  for  the 
building  of  a  small  local  turnpike,1  to  write  a  very  strong 
veto  message  in  which  he  pointed  out  that  the  govern- 
ment had  no  right  to  use  its  money  for  the  creation  of  any 
enterprises  confined  wholly  to  individual  states.  His 
position  was  generally  endorsed  by  the  press  and  public, 
and  the  proposed  raids  on  the  treasury  decreased  from 
that  time  on. 

At  the  time  President  Jackson  vetoed  the  Maysville 
Road  Bill  not  less  than  a  hundred  and  eleven  surveys,  esti- 
mates and  plans  for  canals,  roads,  railroads  and  river 
improvements  were  formally  before  Congress.  These,  it 
was  calculated,  would  cost  about  sixty-three  million  dol- 
lars. Other  similar  projected  improvements  —  not  so  far 
advanced  in  legislative  consideration  —  would  have  cost 
two  hundred  million  dollars  more.  At  that  period  the 

1  The  Maysville  Road  Bill.     The  project  was  a  proposed  turnpike  sixty  miles  in  length 
and  lying  wholly  within   the  state  of    Kentucky. 

714 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

total  Federal  receipts  were  only  about  twenty-four  mil- 
lion dollars  a  year,  of  which  sum  ten  per  cent,  was  ap- 
propriated for  decreasing  the  national  debt,  leaving  less 
than  twenty-two  million  dollars  a  year  for  paying  all 
other  operating  expenses  of  the  government.  It  was 
therefore  obvious  that  embarkation  in  such  an  over- 
whelming amount  of  work  as  was  contemplated  by  the 
mass  of  bills  for  public  improvements  —  even  though 
they  had  all  been  legitimately  deserving  of  support  under 
the  policy  adopted  by  the  government  —  was  out  of  the 
question. 

President  Jackson's  action  in  calling  a  halt  to  the  effort 
to  use  public  money  in  local  enterprises  did  not,  how- 
ever—  as  has  been  shown  —  apply  to  the  National  Road. 
Even  Jackson,  at  the  same  time  he  wrote  his  elaborate 
message  vetoing  the  Maysville  Road  Bill,  approved  an- 
other act  which  appropriated  two  hundred  and  fifteen 
thousand  dollars1  additional  for  the  further  extension  and 
improvement  of  the  government-built  turnpike. 

As  originally  planned,  the  Cumberland  Road  from 
Cumberland  to  Wheeling,  a  distance  of  practically  one 
hundred  and  thirty  miles,  was  to  cost  one  and  three- 
quarter  millions  of  dollars.  The  further  westward  projec- 
tion of  the  highway  brought  it  to  Columbus,  Ohio,  in  1833, 
and  to  Vandalia,  Illinois,  in  1852.  More  than  thirty  acts 
of  Congress  contained  provisions  for  its  building  and 
maintenance  between  1806  and  1838,  and  its  total  cost  to 
the  government  was  not  far  from  seven  millions  of  dollars.2 

The  roadway  was  made  eighty  feet  wide,  with  a  cen- 
tral section  thirty  feet  in  width  covered  with  broken  stone 
a  foot  deep  and  topped  with  a  surface  layer  of  gravel. 

1  Of  which  sum  $115,000  was  to  be  expended  in  Ohio,  $60,000  in  Indiana,  and  $40,000 
in    Illinois. 

2  Some    estimates   put    the    figure    at    about   ten    millions.      The    difficulty    of   analyzing 
and   tracing   early  financial   legislation  makes   it   impossible  to   give  the  exact  amount. 

715 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

But  this  turnpike  construction  was  not  continued  west  of 
Indiana.  Long  before  the  road  reached  the  town  of 
Terre  Haute,  on  the  western  edge  of  that  state,  it  was  real- 
ized by  the  people  that  the  highway  and  its  stage-coaches 
were  not  destined  to  be  the  chief  means  and  method  for 
all  future  communication  with  the  East.  Canals  had 
come,  only  to  be  threatened  in  their  turn  by  the  westward 
creeping  iron  rails,  and  desire  turned  from  the  old  ways 
to  seek  the  new.  So  the  turnpike  lapsed  into  a  dirt 
road  across  the  prairies  of  Illinois  and  finally  came  to  an 
end  at  Vandalia,  whence  another  similar  route  led  onward 
to  St.  Louis. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

LIFE  AND  SCENES  ON  THE  NATIONAL  ROAD  —  THE  TYPE  OF 
MEN  WHO  WORKED  UPON  IT  —  THREE  CHARACTER- 
ISTIC FEATURES  OF  ITS  TRAFFIC  —  FURTHER  EVOLU- 
TION OF  THE  STAGE-COACH  AND  IMPOSING  APPEARANCE 
OF  THE  VEHICLE  IN  ITS  FINAL  FORM  —  SOME  FAMOUS 
DRIVERS  —  FEATS  OF  HOMER  WESTOVER  AND  REDDING 
BUNTING  —  CONESTOGA  WAGON  TRAINS  AND  THE 
WAGONERS  WHO  PILOTED  THEM  —  THE  JOKE  ON 
GUSTY  MITCHELL  —  HOG  MUSIC  —  PROGRESS  OF  A 
PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE  —  FATE  OF  TRAVELLERS  WHO 
JOURNEYED  WITH  THE  DOCUMENT  —  SPECIAL 
COACHES  FOR  THE  PRESIDENTS  THEMSELVES  —  VAN 
BUREN'S  ACCIDENT  —  INCENSE  TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 
A  VANISHED  DAY 

THE  first  stage-coach  which  rumbled  over  the  entire 
eastern  section  of  the  famous  interstate  highway  be- 
tween Cumberland  and  Wheeling  reached  the  last-named 
town  on  August  1,  1817.  After  that  date  the  project — as 
far  as  its  value  to  the  interior  was  concerned  —  remained 
at  a  standstill  for  a  number  of  years.  But  after  its  ex- 
tension through  the  Mississippi  valley,  and  from  about 
1827  until  about  1850,  the  National  Road  became  the 
chief  east-and-west  artery  of  traffic  from  the  Atlantic 
seaboard  to  the  middle  states.  Its  activities  not  only  in- 
timately affected  the  growth  of  the  interior,  but  through- 
out its  entire  length  played  an  important  part  in  the 

717 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


regions  which  it  traversed.  Thousands  of  individuals  were 
concerned,  as  a  matter  of  business  enterprise,  in  its  main- 
tenance and  in  the  traffic  which  it  bore.  The  tavern  keep- 
ers, wagoners,  packmen,  stage  drivers,  hostlers,  and  all 
others  who  spent  their  lives  in  going  back  and  forth  upon 
it,  or  in  ministering  to  the  needs  of  travellers,  were  very 
largely  the  descendants  of  English  emigrants,  and  their 
names  furnish  an  interesting  exhibit  of  one  element  which 
had  colonized  the  country.1 

The  following  is  a  list  of  some  of  the  well-known 
characters  of  the  National  Road  during  the  heyday  of 
its  importance: 


Charles  Allum 
Davis  Ashkettle 
Samuel  Breakbill 
Jacob   Breakiron 
Redding  Bunting 
George  Buttermore 
David  Bonebraker 
George  Clum 
Caleb  Crossland 
Joseph  Doak 
Hugh  Drum 
Paris  Eaches 
Frank  Earlocker 
George  Gump 


John  Guttery 
Robert  Hogsett 
James  Klink 
John  Livingood 
Michael  Longstaff 
Jeff  Manypenny 
John  Mauler 
Spencer  Morherspaw 
Baptist  Mullinix 
James  Noggle 
John  Olivine 
Abner  Peirt 
Peter  Penner 
Elias  Petticord 


Samuel  Riddlemoser 
Jeph  Riggle 
Basil  Sheets 
Caldwell  Slobworth 
Samuel  Sidebottom 
Isaac  Skiles 
Philip  Slipe 
John  Smasher 
Quill  Smith 
Nimrod   Sopher 
Michael  Teeters 
Thomas  Thistle 
Jacob  Wagoner 
Adam  Yeast 


A  knowledge  of  the  methods  used  in  constructing  the 
highway  can  be  obtained  from  newspapers  of  the  time. 
When  Congress  had  authorized  its  opening  through  Ohio 
and  Indiana,  the  Indiana  superintendents  of  the  work 
published  advertisements  in  the  papers  of  the  state  in 
June,  1829,  reciting  the  conditions  required  of  the  con- 
tractors. The  road  there,  as  elsewhere,  was  to  be  eighty 
feet  wide,  and  for  a  width  of  thirty  feet  in  the  center  — 

1  Nearly    all    these    surnames    have    become    practically    extinct    in    modern    American 
society. 

718 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

according  to  the  first  specifications  published  —  all 
stumps  were  to  be  grubbed  up  and  removed  entire.  All 
hills  were  to  be  cut  down  and  all  valleys  filled,  so  that 
no  grade  should  exceed  four  degrees  after  the  road  was 
completed.  On  either  side  of  the  thirty  feet  all  timber 
was  to  be  cut  and  removed. 

Investigation  speedily  brought  to  light  the  fact  that 
such  an  amount  of  timber  cutting  and  stump  grubbing  was 
not  practicable.  It  would  have  exhausted  the  appropria- 
tions while  building  but  a  small  part  of  the  proposed 
thoroughfare.  In  August,  therefore,  the  specifications 
for  the  road  were  amended  and  new  ones  were  issued 
which  read: 

"The  central  part  of  thirty  feet  to  be  cut  in  the  following  manner, 
to  wit: — All  the  trees  of  one  foot  in  diameter  (at  one  foot  from  the 
ground)  and  under  to  be  cut  level  with  the  surface;  all  from  one  foot 
up  to  eighteen  inches  in  diameter  to  be  cut  not  exceeding  nine  inches  from 
the  surface  of  the  ground ;  and  all  trees  over  eighteen  inches  diameter 
to  be  cut  not  exceeding  fifteen  inches  from  the  surface ;  and  all  stumps 
within  the  said  center  of  thirty  feet  must  be  rounded  and  trimmed  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  present  no  serious  obstacles  to  carriages."  The 
specifications  further  said  that  "of  the  remaining  fifty  feet  all  stumps 
must  be  left  not  exceeding  one  and  a  half  feet  in  height."1 

The  careful  manner  in  which  is  here  described  the 
extent  to  which  stumps  might  be  left  in  the  most  im- 
portant overland  traffic  route  then  being  built  in  the 
country,  indicates  the  nature  of  the  roads  of  the  Middle 
West  at  that  period  and  the  difficulties  which  attended 
their  use.  It  is  evident  that  stumps  one  foot  or  more  in 
width  and  from  nine  inches  to  fifteen  inches  in  height 
were  not  then  considered  as  serious  obstacles  to  vehicular 
traffic.  There  still  exists  in  Indiana  a  legend  that  many 
of  the  stage-coach  drivers  who  piloted  their  craft  over  the 
path  here  described  could  tell  on  the  darkest  night 

1  From  the  "Western   Sun,"  September  12,   1829. 

719 


whether  they  had  strayed  from  the  thirty  feet  of  good 
road  into  the  margin  at  the  side. 

But  considering  the  handicaps  which  then  beset  road 
builders,  much  of  the  work  was  exceedingly  well  done; 
better  in  some  aspects  than  is  often  the  case  when  public 
works  are  in  process  of  construction  to-day.1  The  stumps 
obstructing  the  roadway  through  the  three  western  states 
gradually  disappeared,  the  surface  of  broken  stone  and 
gravel  altered  it  to  a  turnpike  in  Ohio  and  many  parts 
of  Indiana,  and  for  years  it  excellently  served  the  pur- 
poses that  inspired  its  creation. 

That  part  of  the  National  Road  between  Cumberland 
and  Wheeling  was  much  more  substantially  built  than 
those  portions  of  it  lying  between  the  Ohio  River  and  its 
western  terminus.  Of  the  eastern  section  of  the  highway 
it  has  been  said: 

"Its  numerous  and  stately  stone  bridges,  with  handsome,  turned 
arches,  its  iron  mile-posts,  and  its  old  iron  gates,  attest  the  skill  of  the 
workmen  engaged  on  its  construction,  and  to  this  day  remain  enduring 
monuments  of  its  grandeur  and  solidity.2  .  .  ." 

The  same  authority  just  quoted  gives  this  description 
of  traffic  on  the  road  during  the  days  of  its  greatest  im- 
portance: 

"As  many  as  twenty  four-horse  coaches  have  been  counted  in  line 
at  one  time  on  the  road,  and  large,  broad-wheeled  wagons,  covered  with 
white  canvas  stretched  over  bows  laden  with  merchandise  and  drawn 
by  six  Conestoga  horses  were  visible  all  the  day  long  at  every  point,  and 
many  times  until  late  in  the  evening,  besides  innumerable  caravans  of 
horses,  mules,  cattle,  hogs  and  sheep.  It  looked  more  like  a  leading 
avenue  of  a  great  city  than  a  road  through  rural  districts. 


iron  gates  here  mentioned  have  disappeared 


211. — Development  of  the  railway.  An  English  coal  wagon,  about  the  year 
1800.  Most  advanced  application  of  the  railed  track  principle,  either  in 
Great  Britain  or  America,  at  that  time.  England  had  been  running 
wagons  on  rails  since  about  1649,  and  had  been  making  iron  rails  since  1738. 
The  following  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  illustrations,  to  No.  332  inclu- 
sive, depict  the  introduction  of  railroads  into  America,  their  improvement 
and  effects,  human  experience  in  their  use,  and  their  westward  advance 
toward  the  Mississippi  River  until  the  year  1857. 

Excitement  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  coaches  all  along  the  road. 
Their  arrival  in  the  towns  was  the  leading  event  of  each  day,  and  they 
were  so  regular  in  transit  that  farmers  along  the  road  knew  the  exact 
hour  of  their  coming  without  the  aid  of  watch  or  clock.  They  ran 
night  and  day  alike.  Relays  of  fresh  horses  were  placed  at  intervals 
of  twelve  miles  as  nearly  as  practicable.  .  .  .  Teams  were  changed 
almost  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  The  coach  was  driven  rapidly  to 
the  station,  where  a  fresh  team  stood  ready  harnessed  waiting  on  the 
roadside.  The  moment  the  team  came  to  a  halt  the  driver  threw  down 
the  reins  and  almost  instantly  the  incoming  team  was  detached,  a  fresh 
one  attached,  the  reins  thrown  back  to  the  driver,  who  did  not  leave 
his  seat,  and  away  again  went  the  coach  at  full  speed."  1 

The  three  characteristic  features  of  traffic  over  the 
National  Road  were  the  stage-coaches,  the  trains  of 
Conestoga  freight  wagons,  and  pack-trains  of  either  mules 
or  horses  —  mules  being  usual.  The  stage-coaches  were 


1  Searight:  pp.  16  and  147. 


721 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

ornate  and  spectacular  apparitions,  painted  in  bright 
colors  and  occasionally  even  gilded.  Their  panels  were 
decorated  with  portraits  of  famous  men,  with  allegorical 
designs  or  landscapes.1  Their  interiors  were  handsomely 
finished  and  painted,  and  lined  with  soft  silk  plush.  The 
coaches  were,  indeed,  vastly  different  from  those  else- 
where observed  in  the  panorama  of  the  early  days.  The 
slow  and  primitive  canvas-covered  "Stage  Wagons"  and 
"Flying  Machines"  of  seventy-five  years  before  had  first 
developed  into  the  more  substantial  type  of  vehicle  such 
as  was  used  throughout  the  East  from  1780  to  1800. 
These,  as  indicated  in  contemporary  pictures  of  them, 
had  heavy  wooden  sides  and  tops.  The  next  step  in  the 
evolution  of  the  American  stage-coach  was  its  assump- 
tion of  body  lines  that  were  slightly  curved,  and  so 
pronounced  did  this  ellipse-like  tendency  become  that  by 
1820  the  typical  American  coach  was  similar  to  the  one 
drawn  by  Captain  Hall  of  the  British  Navy,  or  the  coach 
approaching  the  mansion  house  at  Middletown,  and  the 
stage-coach  of  1818.  By  this  time  the  football  shape  was 
the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  coach  body.  The 
top  continued  the  curve  of  the  under  portion  of  the 
vehicle,  and  no  baggage  or  other  burden  could  be  carried 
on  the  roof. 

An  ordinary  stage-coach  of  1820  and  thereafter  con- 
tained three  transverse  seats,  and  each  seat  accommodated 
three  passengers.  The  three  travellers  who  occupied  the 
front  seat  sat  with  their  backs  toward  the  driver;  the 
others  faced  the  horses.  A  tenth  passenger  could  be  ac- 
commodated outside  with  the  driver,  and  in  fair  weather 

1  "There  was  one  mail  coach  that  was  especially  imposing,  and  on  its  gilded  sides 
appeared  a  picture  of  a  post  boy,  with  flying  horses  and  horn,  and  beneath  in  gilt  letters 
this  awe-inspiring  inscription : 

"He  comes,  the  herald  of  a  noisy  world, 
News   from   all   nations   lumbering   at   his   back. 
"No  boy  who  beheld  that  old  coach  will  ever  forget  it." — Searight:  p.   148. 

722 


...J 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

this  position  was  eagerly  sought.  Small  luggage  could  be 
stowed  away  under  the  seats,  and  more  bulky  objects 
were  deposited  in  a  receptacle  at  the  rear  called  a  "boot." 
But  one  more  noticeable  change  in  the  appearance  of  the 
stage-coach  took  place  during  the  years  of  its  widespread 
use.  That  was  an  abandonment  of  the  oval  roof  for  the 
comparatively  flat  surface  on  which  baggage  could  be 
carried.  This  change  also  permitted  a  little  additional 
space  in  the  interior.  Since  those  were  the  days  before 
metal  springs,  the  propriety  of  conveying  passengers 
intact  to  their  destinations  —  combined  with  a  strong  de- 
sire of  the  travelling  public  to  be  so  delivered  —  had 
resulted  in  the  creation  of  a  device  called  thorough- 
braces.  The  contrivance  was  a  pair  of  leather  springs, 
or  supports  on  which  the  body  of  the  coach  hung  above 
the  axles,  and  which  transformed  the  old  jolting  of  the 
Flying  Machine  into  a  series  of  oscillations  that  were  al- 
most equally  violent,  but  decidedly  less  destructive  to  the 
occupants  of  the  vehicle  thus  equipped.  Thorough- 
braces  were  very  long  and  wide,  the  pieces  of  tanned  hide 
being  either  riveted  or  laced  together,  and  each  super- 
imposed on  another  until  a  support  equal  in  thickness 
to  a  dozen  strips  of  heavy  leather  had  been  built  up. 
On  these  two  fore-and-aft  supports  the  stage-coach  body 
rested,  and  by  their  use  a  considerable  part  of  the  earlier 
discomfort  of  travel  by  stage  was  taken  away. 

The  flat-topped  coach  —  which  probably  first  ap- 
peared about  the  middle  of  the  third  decade  —  came  to 
be  universally  known  as  the  Concord  coach  because  its 
finest  and  most  popular  examples  were  the  product  of  the 
little  village  of  Concord,  in  New  Hampshire.  After  the 
Concord  coach  appeared  it  soon  superseded  all  other 
varieties  of  stage  conveyances  and  spread  through  all  parts 

724 


213. — The  American  Traveller  Broadside  issued  in  Boston  in  1826.  Probably 
the  primary  picture  of  an  actual  railway  printed  in  the  United  States. 
Explaining  the  Hetton  railway  of  England,  and  discussing  the  interest  in 
railroads  already  acute  in  some  parts  of  this  country.  First  of  six  illus- 
trations of  early  American  literature  on  the  subject. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

of  the  country.  It  continued  in  active  use  in  the  West 
until  as  recent  a  date  as  1880,  and  a  few  specimens  are  still 
employed  in  out-of-the-way  localities. 

Every  coach  on  the  National  Road  and  its  contem- 
porary turnpikes  had  an  individual  name  which  was 
painted  on  each  door.  All  the  early  heroes  of  the  Re- 
public as  well  as  prominent  personages  of  the  times  were 
immortalized  by  vehicles  named  in  their  honor.  There 
was  a  Washington  coach,  a  Lafayette,  a  General  Wayne, 
a  General  St.  Glair,  a  General  Harrison,  a  Rough  and 
Ready,  a  Madison,  a  Monroe,  a  Henry  Clay,  and  even  a 
Columbus,  a  Pocahontas,  a  Santa  Anna  and  a  Queen  Vic- 
toria. Other  coaches  were  named  for  the  principal  states 
and  cities  of  the  country  and  for  foreign  countries.  There 
was  also  an  Erin  Go  Bragh. 

The  two  principal  characteristics  that  exalted  any 
particular  stage-coach  driver  among  his  fellows  of  the 
craft  were  redoubtable  feats  of  driving  or  personal 
peculiarities.  Three  of  the  most  famous  drivers  of  the  Na- 
tional Road  were  Homer  Westover,  Redding  Bunting  and 
Montgomery  Demming. 

Westover  was  one  of  the  most  expert  reinsmen  of  his 
time,  and  his  feat  of  driving  from  Uniontown  to  Browns- 
ville —  a  distance  of  twenty  miles  —  in  forty-five  minutes 
long  remained  a  record  to  be  aimed  at  by  his  almost 
equally  skilful  competitors.  This  bit  of  work  was  per- 
formed as  part  of  the  task  of  distributing  to  the  public 
printed  copies  of  a  special  message  addressed  to  Congress 
by  Van  Buren.  The  message  was  taken  from  Frederick 
to  Wheeling  —  two  hundred  and  twenty-two  miles  —  in 
twenty-three  and  a  half  hours.  A  speed  of  almost  ten 
miles  an  hour  was  thus  maintained  for  a  day  and  a  night. 

The  famous  Redding  Bunting  was  notable  for  both 

726 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

those  reasons  which  made  a  driver  conspicuous  among  his 
rivals.  He  was  six  feet  and  six  inches  tall  without  his 
boots,  stood  straight  as  a  ramrod,  had  large,  strong  fea- 
tures, a  red  face,  and  a  deep  and  powerful  voice.  When 
perched  on  top  of  the  immense  mail  coach  of  the  Stockton 
Line  and  guiding  its  splendid  team  of  six  matched  horses, 
he  assuredly  cut  an  imposing  figure.  Many  were  his  deeds 
of  valor,  but  perhaps  his  most  extraordinary  accomplish- 
ment was  on  the  occasion  of  the  conveyance  of  the  message 
in  which  President  Polk  notified  the  country  that  war 
with  Mexico  had  begun.  On  that  occasion  he  drove  one 
hundred  and  thirty-one  miles  in  twelve  hours,  or  prac- 
tically at  the  rate  of  eleven  miles  an  hour.  When  his 
passengers  recovered  they  said  they  would  never  forget 
him. 

Montgomery  Demming,  while  a  good  driver,  owed 
his  celebrity  chiefly  to  his  vast  bulk.  He  slightly  exceeded 
six  feet  in  height  and  his  average  weight,  when  in  good 
training,  was  four  hundred  and  sixty-five  pounds.  But 
that  was  in  the  heyday  of  his  busy  career.  As  he  grew 
older  his  size  increased,  and  at  his  death  he  weighed  six 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds. 

Another  striking  feature  of  daily  life  along  the  Na- 
tional Road  was  the  Conestoga  wagon  traffic.  The  bottom 
of  a  Conestoga  wagon  curved  upward  both  in  front  and 
rear,  for  a  reason  already  stated,  and  all  such  vehicles 
were  substantially  identical  in  appearance.  The  pon- 
derous wheels  bore  wrought  iron  tires  from  four  to  six 
inches  in  width.  Six  horses  constituted  the  customary 
team,  and  the  harness  in  which  they  marched  was  in  keep- 
ing with  the  remainder  of  the  massive  outfit.  The  back- 
bands  were  usually  fifteen  inches  in  width,  the  hip-straps 
were  ten  inches  wide,  and  heavy  black  housing  covered 

727 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 


7.  But  the  most  curious  thing  at 
Baltimore  is  the  rail-road.  I  must  tell 
you  that  there  is  a  great  trade  between 
Baltimore  and  the  states  west  of  the 
Alleghany  Mountains.  The  western 
people  buy  a  great  many  goods  at  Bal- 
timore, and  send  in  return  a  great  deal 
of  western  produce.  There  is,  there- 
fore, a  vast  deal  of  travelling  back  and 
forth,  and  hundreds  of  teams  are  con- 
stantly occupied  in  transporting  goods 
and  produce  to  and  from  market. 


the  horses'  shoulders 
down  to  the  bottom  of 
the  hames.  The  traces 
by  which  a  wagon  was 
pulled  were  heavy  iron 
chains  made  of  short, 
thick  links.  The  wag- 
oner's saddle  was  a  ca- 
pacious seat  covered 
with  black  leather  and 
having  long  wide  skirts. 
The  bells  used  on  the 
harness  of  the  horses 
were  not  like  the  sleigh- 
bells  of  to-day.  They 
were  cone-shaped,  al- 
most as  large  as  small 
dinner  bells,  and  were 
fixed  on  wrought  iron 
arches  over  the  tops  of 
the  hames. 

The  men  who  had 
charge  of  these  huge, 
gaudily  colored  wagons 
and  heavily  laden  pack 
animals  were  a  distinct 
class  of  the  society  of 
those  days.  They  occu- 
pied, in  the  affairs  and 
life  of  the  National 
Road,  a  position  very  similar  to  that  held  on  the  rivers  by 
the  flatboat  men.  Their  days  were  arduous,  full  of  oaths, 
excitement  and  hard  labor.  In  the  early  morning,  after 

728 


Rail-road  Car. 

8.  Now,  in  order  to  carry  on  all  this 
business  more  easily,  the  people  are 
building  what  is  called  a  rail-road. 
This  consists  of  iron  bars  laid  along 
the  ground,  and  made  fast,  so  that  car- 
riages with  small  wheels  may  run  along 
upon  them  with  facility.  In  this  way, 
one  horse  will  be  able  to  draw  as  much 
as  ten  horses  on  a  common  road.  A 
part  of  this  rail-road  is  already  done, 
and  if  you  choose  to  take  a  ride  upon 
it,  you  can  do  so.  You  will  mount  u 
car  something  like  a  stage,  and  then 
you  will  be  drawn  along  by  two  horse:?. 
at  the  rate  of  twelve  miles  an  hour. 

214. — A  description  of  the  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  railroad  in  its  earliest  days,  and 
picture  of  a  horse-drawn  car  on  it. 
From  a  schoolbook  of  the  period. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

hurried  breakfasts,  they  deftly  assembled  their  caravans 
amid  a  hurricane  of  loud  cries  and  curses,  and  set  off  for 
the  day's  journey.  They  usually  halted  for  an  hour  or 
two  in  the  middle  of  the  day  at  some  well-known  roadside 
hostelry  where  they  could  feed  their  animals,  eat  an 
enormous  quantity  of  food  themselves,  and  meet  and  argue 
with  such  acquaintances  as  might  also  have  reached  the 
same  point  while  travelling  in  the  opposite  direction. 
Then,  after  copious  drinking  and  boisterous  farewells, 
they  would  again  take  up  their  appointed  way.  Many 
of  the  countrymen  and  settlers  of  the  near-by  districts 
could  also  be  found  at  the  taverns  at  such  times,  and  on 
the  occasion  of  the  arrival  of  one  or  more  large  pack- 
trains  and  several  stage-coaches  laden  with  travellers,  the 
scene  before  an  inn  was  one  of  almost  indescribable 
animation,  noise  and  confusion. 

Stage-coach  travellers  and  freight  traffic  did  not  stop 
at  the  same  taverns  along  the  National  Road.1  When  a 
wagoner  reached  his  destination  of  the  day  he  put  his 
team  in  the  wagon  yard,  where  the  horses  remained  until 
morning  without  regard  to  the  state  of  the  weather.  Dur- 
ing winter  nights  the  animals  were  protected  by  blankets. 
They  were  fed  from  two  feed  troughs  carried  during  the 
journey  at  the  rear  of  the  vehicle.  When  in  use  the  feed 
troughs  were  attached  to  the  wagon  tongue,  to  which  the 
horses  were  also  tied,  three  on  a  side. 

The  wagoners  carried  their  own  bedding  with  them, 
and  when  they  had  finished  their  duties  to  the  horses  they 
took  their  blankets  into  the  big  assembly  room  of  the  tav- 
ern and  threw  them  on  the  floor,  where  they  themselves 
passed  the  night.  Both  white  and  negro  wagoners  slept 
at  the  same  taverns,  but  the  dark-skinned  men  ate  at  sep- 

1  Those   taverns   patronized   by   freight   traffie   were   known   as   "wagon   stands."     The 
others  were  "stage  houses." 

729 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

arate  tables.  The  cost  of  a  meal  at  a  wagon  stand  was 
twelve  and  a  half  cents;  that  of  a  drink  of  whisky  was 
three  cents.  Two  drinks  ordered  at  the  same  time  cost 
five  cents.1 

The  assembly  room  of  a  wagon  stand  was  at  night 
the  scene  of  many  rude  festivities.  The  wagoners  drank, 
joked,  sang  and  danced.  They  especially  liked  to  dance, 
and  all  those  establishments  whose  proprietors  boasted  a 
practical  working  acquaintance  with  the  fiddle  were  sure 
of  plentiful  patronage.  The  spectacle  presented  by  a 
hoe-down  or  a  Virginia  reel  danced  by  thirty  or  forty 
boisterous,  rollicking  and  roaring  men,  who  sometimes 
diversified  their  enjoyment  by  resort  to  practical  jokes 
and  fisticuffs,  must  have  somewhat  resembled  the  similar 
antics  that  would  have  been  displayed  in  like  situation 
by  a  large  den  of  good-natured  grizzly  bears.  In  those 
days  the  ethics  and  rules  of  practical  joking  were  even 
more  loose  than  those  which  now  govern  that  branch  of 
sport,  as  was  attested  by  the  experience  that  once  befell 
a  tavern  character  known  as  Gusty  Mitchell.  It  was  a 
habit  of  Mitchell  to  steal  the  wagoners'  whisky,  and  one 
night  in  a  spirit  of  playful  remonstrance  at  his  failing  a 
group  of  his  victims  poured  turpentine  over  him  and  set 
him  on  fire.  Then  —  with  some  effort  —  they  extin- 
guished the  flames  before  fatal  injury  had  been  inflicted 
on  Mitchell,  who  abjured  the  company  of  wagoners  from 
that  hour. 

The  scenes  in  and  around  a  wagon  stand  at  the  close 
of  day  have  been  thus  described  by  one  who  beheld  them:2 

"I  have  stayed  over  night  with  William  Cheets,  on  Nigger  Moun- 
tain, when  there  were  about  thirty  six-horse  teams  in  the  wagon  yard, 
a  hundred  Kentucky  mules  in  an  adjoining  lot,  a  thousand  hogs  in  their 

1  At  stage  houses  the  cost  of  one  drink  of  whisky  was  five  cents. 

2  Searight:  p.  142. 

730 


»M>  MKCIl.tMCtl.  COHPKnriOV  OK  I.OCO.MOTlW!  CAKRfAtiES  OX  THK  l,'l VKHIHMM- 


215. — The  New-York  American  newspaper  of  March  11,  1830.  Its  first  page 
was  devoted  to  an  account  of  the  steam  locomotive  tests  undertaken  by  the 
Liverpool  and  Manchester  railway.  The  tests,  thus  treated  as  news,  had 
taken  place  five  months  before,  in  October  of  1829.  Braithwaite's  "Novelty" 
engine  is  shown  on  the  left,  and  Stevenson's  "Rocket"  on  the  right. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

enclosures,  and  as  many  fat  cattle  in  adjoining  fields.  The  music  made 
by  this  large  number  of  hogs  in  eating  corn  on  a  frosty  night  I  shall 
never  forget.  After  supper  and  attention  to  the  teams,  the  wagoners 
would  gather  in  the  barroom  and  listen  to  the  music  on  the  violin  fur- 
nished by  one  of  their  fellows,  have  a  Virginia  hoe-down,  sing  songs, 
tell  anecdotes,  and  hear  the  experiences  of  drivers  and  drovers  from  all 
points  of  the  road,  and,  when  it  was  all  over,  unroll  their  beds,  lay  them 
down  on  the  floor  before  the  barroom  fire  side  by  side  and  sleep  wyith 
their  feet  near  the  blaze  as  soundly  as  under  the  parental  roof." 

One  of  the  wagoners  on  the  National  Road  in  its 
earliest  days  was  a  strong,  swarthy  young  man  named 
Tom  Corwin.  This  youth  afterward  became  a  member 
of  the  lower  house  of  Congress,  and  still  later  was  Gov- 
ernor of  Ohio  and  Federal  Senator  from  that  state.  On 
an  occasion  while  he  and  Henry  Clay  were  travelling  to 
Washington  together,  the  two  stopped  one  day  at  a  stage 
house  where  Clay  was  well  known  but  in  which  Corwin 
was  a  stranger.  The  landlord  heard  Clay  address  his  com- 
panion as  "Tom,"  and  this  incident  —  coupled  with  Cor- 
win's  dark  complexion  —  caused  the  landlord  to  believe 
that  Corwin  was  a  servant  of  color  in  attendance  upon  the 
Kentucky  statesman.  Clay  saw  the  opportunity  for  a  joke 
on  the  tavern  keeper,  and  assumed  an  attitude  that  served 
to  confirm  him  in  his  error.  Corwin,  of  course,  fell  in 
with  the  spirit  of  the  occasion.  When  dinner  was  ready 
Corwin  was  given  a  place  at  the  servants'  table,  which 
he  took  in  a  matter-of-fact  way,  and  during  the  meal  Clay 
called  over  to  him,  "How  are  you  making  out,  Tom?" 
To  which  Corwin  replied,  "Very  well,  sir."  After  the 
meal  was  finished  the  landlord  served  his  distinguished 
guest  with  a  cigar,  and  then  in  an  effort  to  find  favor  in 
the  eyes  of  the  famous  Kentuckian  he  presented  one  to 
"Tom"  also.  When  the  stage  was  ready  to  resume  its 
journey  Clay  formally  introduced  Corwin  to  the  land- 
lord, who  was  overwhelmed  with  mortification  until  the 

732 


R\II,-RO 


ANP 


-* 


1 


'    COMPILED    5THOM      flS  . 

AND  LATEST  AUTHORITIESi 


ORIGI3A1/SI  G43EST10SS 


BT 


THOMAS 


PHILADELPHIA: 

SOLD  BT  JOHN  GRIG6,  No.  9  NORTH  FOURTH  STREET: 

TOWASj  J.  &  D.-M.  HOGAN,  No.  VI  MAKHET  STREET. 
Mifllin  &  Parry,  Prinlfri. 


|830, 


216. — Title   page  of   an   American   book   on   the   subject  of   railways   printed   in 
1830.     Quotations   from   its   opinions   are   given   in   Chapter   XLII. 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Ohio  man  pointed  out  that  he  himself  had  been  a  party 
to  the  deception. 

There  were  still  other  phases  of  traffic  over  the  road. 
There  were  emigrant  families  crawling  slowly  to  the 
West  in  their  smaller  canvas-covered  wagons,  in  which 
the  women-folk  rode  by  day  and  slept  by  night.  Parties 
like  these  were  usually  independent  of  the  taverns,  yet 
whenever  possible  they  encamped  for  the  night  near  such 
an  establishment  in  order  that  their  members  might 
mingle  with  the  other  travellers,  listen  to  the  news  and 
acquire  more  information  regarding  the  new  regions  to 
which  they  were  moving.  There  were  solitary  men 
trudging  afoot,  often  bearing  packs  upon  their  backs. 
These  were  sometimes  advance  scouts  of  families  who 
were  contemplating  a  removal  to  the  interior  and  who 
had  commissioned  some  member  to  go  on  ahead  and  gain 
knowledge  that  might  aid  the  family  in  its  final  choice 
of  a  new  home.  Still  others  were  similar  investigators 
on  horseback.  And  all  of  these,  as  well  as  all  the  other 
elements  which  composed  the  traffic  that  thronged  the 
old  National  Road,  met  on  a  common  footing  at  the 
taverns  which  were  sprinkled  along  the  thoroughfare  at 
distances  of  two  or  three  miles. 

Numerous  competing  lines  of  stage-coaches  plied  on 
the  old  government  turnpike  as  well  as  on  all  the  other 
highways  of  that  period.  Among  th?  stage-coach  com- 
panies of  the  National  Road  were  the  June  Bug  Line,  the 
Pioneer  Line,  the  National  Line,  the  Good  Intent  Line, 
the  Oyster  Line  and  the  Shake  Gut  Line.  The  Oyster 
Line,  as  its  name  implied,  made  a  specialty  of  transport- 
ing oysters,  and  was  a  freight  enterprise  rather  than  a 
travel  service.  The  Shake  Gut  Line  was  largely  em- 
ployed in  the  swift  conveyance  of  small  and  important 

734 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

parcels  or  perishable  freight.1  The  June  Bug  Line  re- 
ceived its  name  because  of  a  prediction  made  at  the  time 
its  service  was  begun  that  the  enterprise  would  not  survive 
until  the  appearance  of  the  June  bugs.  The  prediction 
was  not  fulfilled. 

Although  there  was  a  keen  competition  for  traffic 
among  the  various  companies,  it  wras  usually  the  case  that 
all  competing  stages  were  taxed  to  their  capacity  under 
ordinary  circumstances.  Travel  over  the  road  was  always 
heavy.  It  often  happened  that  a  dozen  or  more  coaches 
would  leave  Wheeling  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same 
direction  —  either  west-bound  or  east-bound  —  on  the 
arrival  of  the  passengers  for  whom  they  had  been  wait- 
ing. Then  began  a  mad  race  toward  the  nearest  relay 
station,  where  fresh  horses  were  to  be  obtained.  It  was 
a  subject  for  legitimate  boasting  when  one  stage  out- 
distanced its 'competitors  and  excelled  them  in  the  speed 
with  which  the  relay  was  accomplished.  Coaches  were 
often  bereft  of  their  exhausted  animals  and  supplied  with 
fresh  ones  within  less  than  a  minute  of  time.  The  one 
hundred  and  thirty  miles  of  road  between  Cumber- 
land and  Wheeling  were  covered  by  the  fastest  coaches 
in  twenty-four  hours,  or  at  a  speed  of  about  five  and 
one-half  miles  an  hour.  Such  was  the  regular  schedule. 
It  occasionally  happened  in  stress  of  circumstances, 
when  necessity  arose,  that  the  trip  was  made  in  twenty 
hours,  though  this  was  a  severe  strain  not  only  on  the 
passengers  but  on  the  equipment. 

Those  two  events  that  always  created  the  most  excite- 
ment along  the  National  Road,  and  that  inevitably  re- 
sulted in  the  performance  of  almost  incredible  exertions 

'At  first  this  was  called  the  "Express  Line."  Its  better  known  name  was  bestowed 
upon  it  because  of  its  employment  of  Montgomery  Demming,  aforementioned,  after  that 
driver  had  ceased  to  pilot  a  "June  Bug"  coach. 

735 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

on  the  part  of  the  stage-coach  companies  were  the  annual 
transportation  of  the  President's  message  to  the  West, 
and  the  trip  of  a  President  himself  over  the  turnpike. 
One  reason  making  the  rapid  carriage  of  the  President's 
message  a  thing  of  consequence  —  aside  from  the  public 
interest  with  which  such  documents  were  always  awaited 
at  the  time  —  was  the  fact  that  much  importance  was 
placed  by  the  Federal  Post-office  Department  on  the 
speed  attained  while  transferring  such  a  message  in  the 
mails.  For  occasions  of  this  sort  the  most  ambitious  and 
expert  stage  drivers  were  selected,  and  as  one  of  them 
sped  madly  across  the  country,  urging  on  his  six  horses 
from  the  top  of  a  heavy  and  careening  vehicle,  the  popu- 
lation of  all  the  region  along  the  .road  gathered  to  watch 
and  cheer  him.  In  carrying  an  executive  message  the 
driver  sometimes  covered  ISO  or  200  miles  at  the  rate 
of  ten  miles  an  hour.  There  was  no  profit  to  the  com- 
panies in  work  of  this  sort  however.  The  special  relays 
of  horses  had  to  be  provided  at  much  more  frequent  in- 
tervals than  was  usual,  and  valuable  animals  were  ruined 
by  the  exertions  to  which  they  were  forced. 

It  was  customarily  the  case  —  especially  if  the  roads 
were  bad  —  that  the  conveyance  of  the  President's  mes- 
sage by  a  stage-coach  resulted  in  the  avoidance  of  that 
particular  vehicle  by  travellers  who  were  not  seriously 
pressed  for  time.  They  well  knew  the  direful  shaking 
they  would  receive  if  they  became  fellow  passengers  with 
the  Presidential  document.  But  if  they  were  of  neces- 
sity forced  to  travel  with  the  annual  address  to  Congress 
they  made  the  best  of  it,  and  arrived  finally  at  their  desti- 
nation, where  the  executive  wisdom  was  enthusiastically 
received  by  the  expectant  multitude  while  they  limped 
slowly  and  painfully  to  bed. 

736 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

Whenever  a  President-elect  travelled  over  the  Na- 
tional Road  to  his  inauguration  at  Washington,  or  when 
a  President  made  a  trip  to  the  West  over  the  same  road, 
the  company  which  he  honored  with  his  patronage  either 
built  a  new  coach  for  the  occasion  or  else  refitted  the 
best  one  in  its  possession.  The  vehicle  in  that  event  was 
decorated  with  even  greater  vividness  than  usual.  The 
coach  itself  was  called  The  President,  or  the  General 
Jackson,  or  Old  Tippecanoe  —  as  the  case  might  be  — 


RAIL-ROAD  JOURNAL. 


VEW.Y'OKK,  JANf.vnY  2, 


217. — Heading;  and  Title  to  Volume  I,  Number  1  of  the  Rail-road  Journal.  The 
Journal  was  the  second  American  periodical,  in  point  of  time,  which  was 
established  to  advocate  the  revolutionary  method  of  transportation. 

and  the  name  was  painted  on  the  door  panels  in  brilliant 
red  or  blue  with  all  the  skill  of  an  artist  engaged  for  the 
occasion.  The  dignity  and  consequence  assumed  and  there- 
after maintained  by  the  driver  of  a  President's  coach  need 
not  be  discussed.  He  was  ever  afterward  looked  upon  as 
the  possessor  of  an  importance  considerably  surpassing 
in  most  respects  that  of  his  equally  famous  passenger. 

President-elect  Jackson  declined  the  offer  of  free 
transportation  in  the  new  coach  prepared  to  convey  him 
to  Washington  in  1829,  but  permitted  his  family  to  occupy 

737 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

it.  He  himself  paid  his  own  way,  in  accordance  with  his 
rule  to  refuse  gifts  of  value.  When  General  Harrison 
went  eastward  over  the  road  to  his  inauguration  in  1841 
he  travelled  in  a  fine  new  coach  named  The  President. 
Polk  and  his  immediate  party  occupied  a  similar  vehicle. 
One  of  the  incidents  of  the  trip  of  General  Taylor  over  the 
road  in  1849  has  thus  been  told: 

"President  Taylor  and  his  party  were,  in  1849,  conveyed  over  the 
road  under  the  marshalship  of  that  most  indefatigable  Whig,  Thos. 
Schriver,  who,  with  some  other  Cumberlanders,  proceeded  to  the  Ohio 
river  and  met  the  presidential  party.  .  .  .  The  Road  was  a  perfect 
glare  of  ice  and  everything  above  ground  was  literally  plated  with 
sleety  frost.  The  scenery  was  beautiful ;  to  native  mountaineers  too 
common  to  be  of  much  interest,  but  to  a  southerner  like  General  Tay- 
lor, who  had  never  seen  the  like,1  it  was  a  phenomenon.  In  coming 
down  a  spur  of  Meadow  Mountain  the  presidential  coach,  with  the 
others,  danced  and  waltzed  on  the  polished  road  first  on  one  side  and 
then  on  the  other  with  every  sign  of  an  immediate  capsize.  But  the 
coaches  were  manned  with  the  most  expert  of  the  corps  of  drivers. 
Schriver  was  in  the  rear  and  in  the  greatest  trepidation  for  the  safety  of 
the  President.  He  seemed  to  feel  himself  responsible  for  the  safety  of 
the  head  of  the  nation.  Down  each  hill  and  mountain  his  bare 
head  could  be  seen  protruding  from  the  window  of  his  coach  to  dis- 
cover if  the  President's  coach  was  still  upon  wheels.  The  iron  gray  head 
of  the  General  could  almost  with  the  same  frequency  be  seen  outside  of 
his  window,  not  to  see  after  anybody's  safety  but  to  look  upon  wrhat 
seemed  to  him  an  Arctic  panorama.  After  a  ride  of  many  miles  the 
last  long  slope  was  passed  and  everything  was  safe.  At  twilight  the 
Narrows  were  reached,  two  miles  west  of  Cumberland,  one  of  the  bold- 
est and  most  sublime  views  on  the  Atlantic  slope.  General  Taylor 
assumed  authority  and  ordered  a  halt,  and  he  got  out  in  the  storm  and 
snow  and  looked  on  the  giddy  heights  of  Will's  Creek  until  he  had  taken 
in  the  grandeur  of  the  scenery.  He  had  beheld  nothing  like  it  before, 
even  in  his  campaigns  in  Northern  Mexico." 

The  mention  of  Presidential  trips  over  the  National 
Road  would  not  be  complete  without  reference  to  an  in- 
cident that  happened  to  Van  Buren  near  the  western  end 
of  the  thoroughfare  in  1844.  Although  not  chief  executive 
of  the  nation  at  that  time,  he  was  making  an  extended  trip 

1  In  reality,  Taylor  bad  seen  too  much  of  the  world  to  be  astonished  by  the  mountains 
of  Maryland,  but  he  no  doubt  enjoyed  them. 

738 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

through  the  Middle  West  in  the  hope  of  securing  the 
nomination  soon  to  be  made  by  his  party,  and  in  the  course 
of  his  journey  he  reached  the  town  of  Indianapolis.  A 
considerable  feeling  of  hostility  to  Van  Buren  then  existed 
in  Indiana,  partly  as  a  result  of  his  earlier  action  in  veto- 
ing a  bill  designed  for  the  completion  of  the  National 
Road  through  that  state.  So  a  number  of  his  Hoosier 
Whig  opponents  sought  out  the  stage  driver  who  was  to 
pilot  him  westward  to  St.  Louis  and  had  a  secret  confer- 
ence with  that  individual.  Van  Buren  resumed  his  trip 
the  next  day,  and  hardly  was  he  out  of  sight  of  Indianapo- 
lis when  the  driver  ran  off  the  road  and  upset  the  coach. 
But  owing  to  the  discrimination  with  which  the  scene  of 
the  accident  had  been  selected  the  ex-President  entirely 
escaped  any  injuries  save  those  consequent  upon  his 
precipitation  into  a  large  mud-hole.  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  both  his  temper  and  apparel  were  seriously  damaged. 
Thus  did  the  Whigs  of  Indiana  glut  themselves  with  re- 
venge for  a  President's  opposition  to  the  building  of  an 
interstate  thoroughfare. 

The  ordinary  rates  of  passage  paid  by  stage-coach 
travellers  on  the  eastern  section  of  the  National  Road  and 
its  Baltimore  connection  were  as  follows: 

From  Baltimore  to  Frederick $2 . 00 

From  Frederick  to  Hagerstown1   2 . 00 

From   Hagerstown  to  Cumberland    5 .00 

From  Cumberland  to  Uniontown 4.00 

From  Uniontown  to  Washington 2 . 25 

From  Washington  to  Wheeling 2.00 


Through  (are  to  the  Ohio  River $17.25 

There  is  an  interesting  tradition  to  the  effect  that  the 
custom  of  granting  free  travel  privileges  to  favored  in- 

1Hagerstown   was  not  directly  on   the  Road,  but  best  reached  by  it,  and  so  near  that 
the   town   was   always   considered   a«   a    National    Road    "point." 

,  733, , 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA 

dividuals  originated  on  the  National  Road  in  connection 
with  its  use  by  government  officials.  The  story  goes  that 
a  well-known  stage  line  proprietor  named  Reeside  framed 
a  cabalistic  signature  which  he  made  with  chalk  on  the 
hat  of  a  man  to  whom  he  was  granting  free  transportation. 
Reeside's  agents  wrere  instructed  to  collect  no  money  from 
passengers  whose  beavers  bore  the  magic  sign.  The  drivers 
soon  came  to  say  of  such  a  favored  traveller,  "The  old  man 
has  chalked  his  hat."1 

One  other  peculiar  and  omnipresent  feature  of  modern 
life  for  which  the  old  National  Road  is  responsible  de- 
serves notice.  The  drivers  of  the  Conestoga  wagons  were 
inordinate  users  of  tobacco,  but  owing  to  their  small  wages 
they  protested  loudly  against  paying  the  customary  price 
for  cigars.  Some  unknown  genius  thereupon  devised  a 
scheme  for  satisfying  the  wagoners.  He  invented  an  ob- 
ject, made  of  cheap  tobacco  and  having  the  general  size 
and  shape  of  a  lead  pencil,  which  could  be  held  between 
the  teeth,  and  which  would  produce  large  quantities  of 
strong  smoke  when  manipulated  according  to  the  usage 
to  which  a  cigar  is  customarily  subjected.  These  name- 
less objects  he  placed  on  the  market  at  four  for  one  cent. 
They  were  adopted  by  the  wagoners  with  enthusiasm,  and 
were  promptly  dubbed  "Conestoga  cigars"  by  those  who 
beheld  them  from  a  safe  point  of  vantage.  From  this  era 
of  their  history  their  transition  to  "Conestogys"  and  thence 
to  "Stogies"  was  speedy  and  inevitable.  "Stogies"  they 
have  since  remained,  and  the  smoke  into  which  they  dis- 
appear by  the  hundreds  of  millions  is  an  incense  —  fig- 
uratively speaking  —  offered  up  to  the  memory  of  a 
vanished  day. 

1  Possibly  the  still  existing  practise  of  railroad  conductors,  who  often  stick  small 
pasteboard  cards  in  passengers'  hat-bands,  is  a  survival  of  this  early  custom  which  made 
it  necessary  to  look  at  a  man's  l:at  to  discover  if  his  fare  had  been  collected. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


380D911H1915  ..  ...         . 


A  HISTORY  OF  TRAVEL  IN  AMERICA,  BEING  AN 


